NOPE : Tuesday 16th August 2022.

I saw 'NOPE' earlier this week and this eagerly awaited highly anticipated M Rated American Sci-Fi horror film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele whose two previous film making outings were the highly acclaimed 'Get Out' in 2017 and 'Us' in 2019. The film saw its World Premier showcasing in Los Angeles on 18th July, was released Stateside on 22nd July and here in Australia on 11th August having so far grossed US$117M from its production budget of US$68M and has garnered generally positive critical reviews. The films title was rumoured to be an acronym for 'Not Of Planet Earth' or 'Not Our Planet Earth' based on the movie poster, but Peele later revealed that the title speaks to the reaction he hoped to garner from audiences.

The film opens up with a short clip of the popular 1998 TV sitcom 'Gordy's Home' being recorded on a  soundstage before the titular chimpanzee animal actor (Terry Notary) attacks several of its human co-stars after being startled when a balloon bursts on set. We later see the full extent of the attack in flashback as the show's youngest actor, Ricky 'Jupe' Park (Jacob King), cowers under a table and watches the bloodbath unfold but is unharmed, though naturally traumatised by the experience. The chimp finds Jupe and extends his bloodied hand for a fist bump, before being shot dead by authorities.

We then fast forward to the the present day, and ranch owner Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) trains and handles horses for Hollywood film and TV productions, under the name of Haywood's Hollywood Horses Ranch. One bright sunny day he is out riding one of his horses, Ghost, and is killed by a quarter coin that pierces his eye and lodges in his brain that seemed to fall inexplicably from the sky. His adult children Otis Jr. - 'OJ' (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald 'Em' (Keke Palmer) inherit the ranch. OJ tries to keep the business afloat and protect his father's legacy, while Em seeks fame and fortune in Hollywood, and is happy to sell up. 

Some six months later, while filming a TV commercial with well known and highly regarded cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), one of the horses reacts violently when a crew member startles it suddenly, resulting in the Haywoods being fired from the project. The ranch's financial situation begins to worsen and OJ is forced into selling several of his horses to the now adult Jupe (Steven Yuen), who owns and operates the nearby 'Jupiter's Claim', a small Western theme park and neighbour of the Haywood's, where he exploits his story of the 'Gordy's Home' attack for profit. Jupe offers to buy the ranch from the Haywood's, an offer which Em encourages OJ to accept.

Later the Haywood's notice their electricity supply fluctuating, the mobile phones cutting out and their horses vanishing and violently reacting to a seemingly unknown presence. OJ is the first to see in the clouds above the ranch an unidentified flying object shaped like a flying saucer that has been swallowing up their horses and spitting out any inorganic material, which caused their father's death. Motivated by a desire for wealth and fame, the siblings decide to document evidence of the UFO's existence, and engage Fry's Electronics (a big box consumer electronics store) employee Angel Torres (Brandon Perea) to set up surveillance cameras around the property, all pointing up towards the sky. One night while monitoring the night sky, more electrical interference and a praying mantis on one of the cameras prevent them from securing any clear footage. The next day as Angel secretly monitors the footage from his workplace he observes a nearby cloud that never moves. He rushes over to the ranch with his video footage and together they draw the conclusion that this is the place where the UFO is hiding. 

Jupe starts up a new live show, the 'Star Lasso Experience' in Jupiter's Claim and plans to use a horse, Lucky, as bait to entice the UFO, having previously fed it the horses he had bought from the Haywoods. In front of an audience of about forty made up of  his staff and paying guests, he says that for a number of consecutive Friday evenings at 6:13pm the UFO manifests itself from the skies above. The UFO duly arrives about a hour early and quickly devours Jupe and the whole audience. OJ draws the conclusion that the UFO is not a spaceship, but a predatory, territorial creature which eats anything that looks directly at it. Utilising similar methods to those used to break and train horses, OJ believes they can influence the creature's behaviour to capture footage of it without being killed themselves. They call the creature 'Jean Jacket' after the first horse that Em learned to ride, and they then decide to hire Holst for assistance. Holst initially refuses, but eventually reconsiders after hearing about the Jupiter's Claim incident broadcast on national news that has the Police and authorities baffled as to how forty or so people can just disappear en masse. 

To avoid Jean Jacket's adverse effects on electronics, Holst brings a hand-cranked IMAX film camera to capture footage. With Angel, the group of four hatch a plan to bait Jean Jacket and watch a field of inflatable scattered tube men props for electrical malfunctions to deduce its location in the sky above the ranch. However, a TMZ reporter trespasses onto the ranch and despite being asked to turn around and go back from whence he came by Em he continues onward with his own hand held camera. He is thrown from his electric motorbike when it suddenly powers down within close proximity to Jean Jacket. He in turn is devoured by Jean Jacket while laying injured on the ground but not before begging OJ to film the event. OJ rides off from the scene on Lucky. Though Holst captures footage of Jean Jacket, he lets himself be eaten along with his smaller hand held hand cranked camera, forcing the remaining three to flee. Angel survives an attack from Jean Jacket by wrapping himself in a tarp and binding it with barbed wire, causing the creature to unfurl from its saucer shape and into something more resembling a jellyfish.

OJ lures Jean Jacket away from Em, while she rushes to Jupiter's Claim on the downed motorbike immobilised by the TMZ reporter, and untethers its giant balloon cowboy mascot. She uses an attraction's analog camera located in a wishing well to photograph Jean Jacket as it flies directly overhead and attempts to consume the balloon, which then explodes seemingly killing it. With the picture as proof of the creature's existence and reporters pulling up, Em sees an unharmed OJ ride to Jupiter's Claim on Lucky. 

'Nope' is Jordan Peele's third feature film making outing and here once again he doesn't disappoint, providing the viewer with a mash up of Sci-Fi, horror and Western genres that when combined offer a film that is bigger than the sum of its parts. It is action spectacle writ large with stunning cinematography, just the right amount of humour, a cast on its A-game, and a thrill and chill ride that will maintain the attention throughout its 135 minute run time that never leaves you wanting. The film is entertaining, fun and offers up a few well placed jump scares, despite the ending feeling rushed toward and leaving a number of questions unanswered. For me, 'Nope' gets a resounding Yep!

'Nope' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 11th August 2022.

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival launches on Friday 12th August and runs through until Friday 19th August. Sarajevo is the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a population of just over half a million inhabitants. The city is a prominent centre of culture in the Balkans and exerts region-wide influence in entertainment, media, fashion and the arts. Towards the end of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, in 1995, Obala Art Centar initiated the Sarajevo Film Festival with the aim of helping to reconstruct civil society and retain the cosmopolitan spirit of the city. Today, two decades later, the Sarajevo Film Festival is the leading film festival in the region, recognised by both film professionals and the wider audience. The Sarajevo Film Festival is an international film festival with a special focus on the region of South-East Europe shining an international spotlight on films, talent and future projects from the region. It is the premier and largest film festival in Southeast Europe, and has grown to be one of the largest film festivals in Europe, attracting a paying audience of about 100,000 guests. 

This year eight film titles will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo Award in the Competition Programme - Feature Film 2022. In addition, there are three other competition programmes - documentary, short and student film. In all, fifty-one films will compete for awards at the festival, and of these fifty-one films, twenty-one are World Premieres, along with seven international, one European, twenty-one regional and one Bosnian and Herzegovinian premiere.

Those eight films competing in the Heart of Sarajevo Feature Film Award category and for whom the awards are presented for Best Feature Film – with an award in the amount of €16,000; Best Director – award in the amount of €10,000; Best Actress award in the amount of €2,500 and Best Actor award also in the amount of €2,500, are as follows :-

* 'A Ballad' from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Written, Produced and Directed by Aida Begic. World Premier screening. An unambitious, 30-year-old homemaker and mother to an eight-year-old girl, moves back to her parental home after ten years of marriage. Soon after, she realises she is stuck in a circle of provincial rules and expectations and a complex relationship with her ambitious mother and spoiled younger brother.

* 'Corsage' from Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Written and Directed by Marie Kreutzer. Regional Premier screening. Empress Elizabeth of Austria is idolised for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends. In 1877 at Christmas the Empress turns forty and is officially deemed an old woman, so she starts trying to maintain her public image.

* 'Men of Deeds' from Romania and Bulgaria and Directed by Paul Negoescu. World Premier screening. A man in his late 30's enjoys the easy life of a village policeman. His passivity during a series of violent events soon turns him into an accomplice to murder. Tension accumulates in the village, forcing him to make a final decision.

* 'Klondike' from Ukraine and Turkey and Directed by Maryna Er Gorbach. Regional Premier screening. The film focuses on the story of a local Ukrainian family trapped at the epicentre of the crash of the Malaysian Airlines MH17. The actions unfold on July 17, 2014, in the village of Grabove, Donetsk region, near the Russian border.

* 'Riders' from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Written and Directed by Dominik Mencej. World Premier screening. Slovenia, the spring of 1999. Two friends from a small village decide to transform their mopeds into choppers and embark on a journey. Looking for freedom and love, they travel through dreams of the past and visions of the future.

* 'Safe Place' from Croatia and Written, Directed and starring Juraj Lerotic. Regional Premier screening. Follows Damir, who's trying to take his own life while his family wants to save him. Everything happens over a period of just 24 hours.

* 'Serviam - I Will Serve' from Austria and Directed by Ruth Mader. Regional Premier screening. Set in a Catholic girls boarding school for wealthy parents and their daughters near Vienna, in this closed environment, a nun uses authoritarian methods to fight for the faith of each child. Martha, a twelve-year-old girl, encouraged by the nun, is ready to sacrifice herself for the sins of the world.

* 'Six Weeks' from Hungary and Written and Directed by Noemi Veronika Szakonyi. World Premier screening. A defiant teenager gives up her newborn daughter through open adoption, but doubts begin to arise within her body and soul. According to Hungarian law, she has six weeks to change her mind.

The other competition strands are Documentary Film 2022 featuring twenty-two films ranging from twelve minutes in length to 107 minutes duration of which eight are World Premiers, three are International Premiers, one is a European Premier, nine are Regional Premiers and one is a Bosnia and Herzegovina Premier. Then there is the Short Film 2022 category of which there are ten films in competition ranging from ten minutes to twenty-six minutes in length and of which four are World Premiers, one is an International Premier and the remaining five are Regional Premiers. And closing out the competitive strand is the Student Film 2022 of which there are eleven entries ranging from four minutes to thirty minutes duration of which four are World Premiers, four are International Premiers and three are Regional Premiers. 

Additionally, American Academy Award-nominated Actor, Director, playwright and author Jesse Eisenberg will be an honorary guest and on August 15th, Sarajevo Film Festival will honour Eisenberg with the Heart of Sarajevo Award, ahead of a Special Screening of 'When You Finish Saving the World' - Eisenberg’s Directorial feature debut.

For more details of this years 28th Sarajevo Film Festival, you can visit the official website at : - https://www.sff.ba/en

This week then we have four new cinematic releases to tempt you with kicking off with an American Sci-Fi horror offering that follows two California ranch-owning siblings who attempt to capture evidence of an unidentified flying object. This is followed by a German WWII drama documentary film marking the 80th anniversary of a meeting that would seal the fate of some eleven million Jews from across Europe. Next up is an Australian drama film about a young couple who get away to the south western corner of Western Australia for the weekend to decide whether to stay together or end their relationship. And we close out the week with an Australian documentary film about a filmmaker who is obsessed with making home videos of his mother, inadvertently turning her into an online celebrity. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'NOPE' (Rated M) - this eagerly awaited highly anticipated American Sci-Fi horror film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele whose two previous film making outings were the highly acclaimed 'Get Out' in 2017 and 'Us' in 2019.  The film saw its World Premier showcasing in Los Angeles on 18th July and was released Stateside on 22nd July, having so far grossed US$98M from its production budget of US$68M and has garnered generally positive critical reviews. The films title was rumoured to be an acronym for 'Not Of Planet Earth' or 'Not Our Planet Earth' based on the movie poster, but Peele later revealed that the title refers to the reaction he hoped to elicit from audiences.

Here then, two siblings Otis 'OJ' Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald 'Em' Haywood (Keke Palmer) who run a California horse ranch for Hollywood film and television productions discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, while the owner of an adjacent theme park, Ricky 'Jupe' Park (Steven Yuen) tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon. Also starring Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Keith David and Wrenn Schmidt.

'THE CONFERENCE' (Rated M) - this German historical WWII drama documentary film is Directed by Matti Geschonneck, and shows a historically accurate re-enactment of the real Wannsee Conference held on January 20th 1942 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of that ill fated day when fifteen top ranking Nazi officials meet amidst the Second World War in a palatial villa southwest of Berlin, to discuss over coffee and breakfast for ninety minutes the 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question', meaning the bureaucratically strictly planned organisation of the systematic mass murder of some eleven million Jews from all over Europe. Starring Phillipp Hochmair, Johannes Allmayer and Maximilian Bruckner. This film first aired on German TV back in late January this year.

'EDWARD AND ISABELLA' (Rated CTC) - is an Australian film Written, Co-Produced, lensed and Directed by Adam Morris in his feature film making debut. Self-funded, made entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic and shot in the sleepy coastal town of Albany, Western Australia, the film tells the story of a successful Perth couple Edward (Daniel Barwick in his screen acting debut) and Isabella (Chloe Hurst) who take a weekend break to the Great Southern region of Western Australia to determine the fate of their relationship. Also starring Renato Fabretti as The Doctor, Chloe's psychologist. Filmed on a micro-budget with very limited cast and crew, it goes on limited release in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales and was officially selected for Film festivals in London, Singapore and Montreal and has along the way picked up Best Film and Best Director awards in Japan, Sweden, the Czech Republic, France and Italy.

'EVERYBODY'S OMA' (Rated M) - this Australian documentary film is Co-Produced, Directed and stars Jason van Genderen in only his second feature length doco following 2007's 'Lockout' although he has helmed sixteen other short films, documentary shorts and television series. Here, filmmaker Jason van Genderen is obsessed with making home videos about his family, and their Dutch matriarch, Oma. He and his wife Megan embrace caring for Oma’s dementia in increasingly whimsical ways, accidentally turning her into an online celebrity. Their unassuming home videos, shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, attract over one hundred million views globally, and follows in the New South Wales Central Coast family’s footsteps as they navigate Oma’s failing health under the spotlight of an enthusiastic audience of well-meaning strangers.

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

US : Tuesday 2nd April 2019.

And so Jordan Peele here brings us his highly anticipated and already critically acclaimed American psychological horror thriller film 'US' which I saw earlier this week. Peele also Co-Produced with Jason Blum, and wrote the Screenplay. Following hot on the heels of his previous also acclaimed debut feature 'Get Out' in 2017, the film saw its World Premier screening at SXSW in early March and went on wide release in the US on 22nd March and a week later here in Australia. Made for US$20M the film has so far grossed US$181M and in its opening weekend debuted at US$71.1M, the second best opening for a live-action original film after 2009's 'Avatar' and the third-best total for a horror film after 2017's 'It' and 2018's 'Halloween'. The film has also generated widespread Critical and audience acclaim.

It is the Summer of 1986, on Santa Cruz Beach, and the young Adelaide Thomas (Madison Curry) is out for the evening at the beachside amusement park with her parents. While her parents are distracted, Adelaide wanders off down to the waters edge, and upon returning is enticed into a funhouse. At first all seems relatively normal, until the lights go out, and the place is plunged into darkness and silence. Adelaide begins to whistle to calm her nerves, only to have an unknown presence whistle the same tune right back at her. Then in a hall of mirrors she comes across a doppelgänger of herself, but this is no reflection looking back at her. A short time later Adelaide is reunited with her parents, but is unable to speak.

We then fast forward to the present day and Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke are married couple Adelaide Wilson (the now grown up Adelaide Thomas) and Gabriel 'Gabe' Wilson, who together with their son Jason (Evan Alex) and daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) are en route to their family beachside home in Santa Cruz where they plan on spending some quality family time. Gabe is keen on visiting Santa Cruz Beach later that afternoon and has already made plans to meet up with good friends Kitty and Josh Tyler (Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker respectively) and their twin kids Gwen and Maggie (Cali and Noelle Sheldon). Adelaide however, is fearful and anxious about returning to Santa Cruz Beach given her experiences there as a young child, and attempts (albeit unsuccessfully) to dissuade Gabe from the trip. Reluctantly Adelaide agrees and the family drives off catching up with the Tylers at the beach. All is good, until young Jason wanders off to use the toilet. Upon returning Jason is distracted by a man wearing a red jump suit, standing motionless on the sand and bleeding from the hands. Adelaide is distraught about her missing son, and when he returns moments later she chides him, before hugging him. He does not mention the man he saw.

Later that same night, a strange family of four appears in the driveway of the Wilson's home. Initially, they stand there motionless in the moonlight, all wearing the same red jumpsuit, and all holding hands. Their menacing presence lasts for about five minutes, with Gabe becoming increasingly agitated by their presence, to the point where he retrieves a baseball bat from inside the house and threatens them if they do not leave his property immediately.

Within a few minutes the red suited family begin attacking the Wilson family home and forcibly gaining entry. The Wilsons quickly realise that the four intruders are in fact doppelgängers of themselves, led by Adelaide's double, Red (Lupita Nyong'o). Each of them is wearing the same red jumpsuit as the man Jason saw on the beach, and Jason's doppelgänger Pluto (Evan Alex) is wearing a white skintight mask over his head and covering his face. 

Red, is the only doppelgänger who speaks while the others grunt, and she tells the Wilsons the story of a girl who lives a happy life while her shadow suffers. The family is then separated by their opposite selves : Red makes Adelaide shackle herself to a table, Zora is pursued by Umbrae (Shahadi Wright Joseph), Gabe is dragged onto the motor boat he had rented for the duration of their break by Abraham (Winston Duke), and Jason is charged to go off and 'play' with Pluto in a cupboard. 

While chasing Zora on foot, Umbrae is interrupted by a neighbour who has come outside to see why Umbrae is standing on the roof of his car. She jumps down and stabs the neighbour with a pair of gold scissors so allowing Zora to escape. Gabe is able to kill Abraham with his boat's problematical and temperamental motor, while Jason quickly learns that Pluto mirrors his actions almost exactly. Jason removes a mask he has been wearing on and off since their arrival, and in so doing Pluto does likewise revealing that half his face is disfigured by a severe burn when he was younger. He is able to distract Pluto with a magic trick and escape, leaving Pluto locked in the cupboard. Red is drawn to Pluto's cries for release, allowing Adelaide the time to break free. The family regroups and is able to escape on Gabe's boat as Red, Umbrae and Pluto come down to the waters edge to see them motor off into the moonlight.

Meanwhile, at the Tyler household not far away, their house is broken into and the family of four are murdered by their identical selves. The Wilsons arrive expecting to find safe harbourage but are forced to kill the Tyler doubles in what turns out to be a bloodbath using the good old trusted baseball bat, a golf club and a heavy stone crystal ornament. With the Tylers and their doubles dead and blood spattered walls and furniture all round them, in a surreal moment they sit around the dining table eating snacks and turn on the news to see that millions of doppelgängers, calling themselves 'the Tethered', have risen up in their red jumpsuits and committed murders against their real counterparts across the US. The doppelgängers subsequently join hands together to form a massive human chain, which the news channels speculate is some form of protest.

Upon seeing the news, Adelaide takes charge of their situation and suggests that they should get as far away as possible, and drive down to Mexico. The Wilsons drive away in the Tylers' car with Zora behind the wheel. They are attacked by Umbrae, who is launched while clinging onto the bonnet into a tree, by a sudden braking manoeuvre. Adelaide gets out of the car to investigate where Umbrae might be and finish her off once and for all. She discovers the broken body of Umbrae hanging from the branches of a tree and she dies shortly afterwards. As day breaks, the Wilsons arrive at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, where they find their own abandoned car set ablaze. 

Pluto is waiting in front of the burning car and has set a trap to kill the Wilsons by laying a trail of petrol to the Tyler's car, but Jason, remembering that Pluto mirrors his every move, walks backward so that Pluto also steps backwards into the burning car and is consequently burned to death. In all the commotion, Red reappears and takes Jason. 

With Adelaide now giving chase to Red in an attempt to find her son, Zora and Gabe find refuge in an abandoned ambulance located behind the now abandoned Santa Cruz Beach amusement park, through which now runs a long line down to the ocean of red jump suit wearing body doubles all holding hands. Adelaide returns to the boardwalk funhouse and walks through a secret tunnel in the hall of mirrors. This leads to an underground facility overrun by rabbits, where Adelaide finds Red.

Red, with her back towards Adelaide and snipping away at paper stood facing a blackboard states that the Tethered were created by the U.S. government decades ago in an attempt to control the public, but the experiment failed and the Tethered were abandoned in an extensive network of underground tunnels and facilities. For generations, they were trapped beneath the surface hidden from view and without any knowledge of their above ground doubles. All they could do was mimic the actions of their counterparts on the surface until Red devised a cunning and meticulous plan for them to escape, which took a very look time to coordinate and execute. The two fight, with Red gaining the upper hand until Adelaide manages to kill Red with the fire poker she has held onto since the prior night. She locates Jason hiding in a locker and rescues him, returning to the surface to meet up with Gabe and Zora. They drive out of the amusement park avoiding the long line of red suited Tethered individuals all holding hands.

'Us' is a worthy follow up to 'Get Out' and here Jordan Peele delivers a genre bending film that has its roots firmly bedded in home invasion horror at the hands of menacing doppelgängers, thriller, drama and with just a sprinkling of Sci-Fi offering blood and death, just the right amount of humour and edge of your seat action to propel the film to all the acclaim it deserves. As for the meaning behind all of this, well that remains open for discussion long after the credits have rolled and the curtain has dropped. Suffice to say the twin performances of Lupita Nyong'o especially is exemplary as she inhabits two very different characters struggling with who and what they are and what motivates them both to survive their living nightmares. Like 'Get Out' Peele has created another original story that further cements his career as an unconventional Director and a storyteller of repute, and a film that is sure to become a classic. 

'Us' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 28th March 2019.

Perhaps if you are a film aficionado living in the US you may well have heard and even visited The Ann Arbor Film Festival, but if you live outside America you could be forgiven for never having heard of said festival. Well, for the sake of the uninitiated, The Ann Arbor Film Festival, now in its 57th year, is an annual film festival held in Ann Arbor in the U.S. State of Michigan, this year running from 26th March through until 31st March. Established in 1963, it is the fourth oldest film festival in North America and the oldest experimental film festival. It has become one of the premier film festivals for independent and experimental filmmakers to showcase their work. Created as an alternative to commercial cinema, the annual week-long festival remains true to its original mission of promoting film as an art form. The Ann Arbor Film Festival also fosters the growth of emerging and established film and video makers. The festival is open to film and video of all lengths and genres, including experimental, narrative, animation, documentary, and genre hybrids. The festival's mission is to underpin bold, visionary filmmakers, promote the art of film and new media, and provide communities with remarkable cinematic experiences.

The festival features experimental, documentary and animated short films in competition ranging from anywhere from one minute in length up to twenty or so minutes duration, of which there are sixteen separate screening sessions over the span of the festival, with each session containing at least six shorts. In the 'Features in Competition' section there is :
* 'LAST DAYS OF CHINATOWN' Directed by Nicole Macdonald and telling the story of Detroit's Cass Corridor, one of the roughest areas in the city for the past one hundred years, is now experiencing a complete overhaul, as long-awaited development finally sweeps the area. Exploring who and what remains in the Corridor, we see how residents survived, how they sometimes didn't, who fled the area and why, as gentrification now redefines the Corridor, long home to the poor and disenfranchised as well as to the artists and visionaries of the city.
* 'CLOSING TIME' Directed by Nicole Vogele, it is 3:00am along the Zhongzheng Road in Taipei. The traffic of a 24/7 society throbs through the metropolis in constant waves. Mr. Kuo and his wife, Mrs. Lin, cook for the city’s sleepless. They work at night and sleep through the days, trying to keep afloat. Their eatery is a pit stop, a place of refuge, a warm bowl of rice. Described as a kaleidoscopic journey that relies on colours, sensations, animals, typhoons, and a dark lilac sky—the materials of life.
* 'WONDERS WANDER' Directed by Shu Lea Cheang this is a location-based mobi-web serial with four fictional episodes set in Madrid exploring the off-the-mainstream nouveau-queer generation that includes refugees, migrants, functional diversity, transfeminista, transfeminism, open family, subversive motherhoods, sustainable living, and the rise of auto-defense practices for self-empowerment.
* 'CABALLERANGO' Directed by Juan Pablo Gonzalez, a family here reflects on a young man’s disappearance in a Mexican village under the watchful eyes of the horse that saw him last.
* 'TWO A.M.' Directed by Loretta Fahrenholz, here Sanna is pitted against an overbearing family of mind-reading 'Watchers'. As a telepathic Police state manipulates social unrest in a city in flames, Sanna attempts to reconnect with her sister Algin, a blacklisted pop singer. On the run from her unpredictably sinister Watcher cousins, Sanna is soon joined by her lover Franz. But just as the possibility of freedom seems finally within reach, a drug-fueled party takes a turn for the worse.
* '<3' Directed by LNZ Arturo and described as a sixty-minute selfie; a coming-of-age story in a technological communications revolution where love gets uploaded, digitally dislocated, unseen, and lost, bit by bit, into an asynchronous Internet landscape.
* 'NOTHING OR EVERYTHING' Directed by Gyeol Kim and set in both the past and the present, two people walk deep into a mountain forest. For these two women born and raised in the city, there is no place more unfamiliar. Here, two people in the present climb the mountain, following two people from the past. The film unfolds with past and present overlapping in the same space, depicting two heartbroken women.
* 'MY FRIEND THE POLISH GIRL' Directed by Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek, here an experimental documentary told through the eyes of Katie—an amateur filmmaker and American rich kid— who is lensing a film about Alicja, an erratic unemployed Polish actress. Set in a post-Brexit London, Katie colonises and disrupts Alicja’s life, mirroring the treatment of migrants in the U.K. at first welcomed, used, and then discarded.
* 'VULTURE' Directed by Philip Hoffman, this film sets its sights on farm animals and their surrounding flora. Static shots and slow-moving zooms follow the grazing animals in their minute interspecies exchanges.
* 'HOW WE LIVE : MESSAGES TO THE FAMILY' Directed by Gustav Deutsch the film undertakes its journey via amateur film recordings, not only producing a community between various people from various places, but also establishing a timeless togetherness, allowing generations of filmmakers to speak to one another and, via the medium of the movie screen, to us.

You can get the whole run down on the Ann Arbor Film Festival at the official website at : https://www.aafilmfest.org/

This week we have five new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with a live action retelling of a classic Disney animated feature from 78 years ago that tells a modified story but still retains the touchstones of that much loved film about a certain young elephant with an exceptional talent. We then have a change of pace from a second time Director who has already established himself as a master of the genre in this psychological horror thriller about a family invaded by a group of doppelgängers. This is followed by two romantic dramas - the first telling the story of two teenage kids with Cystic Fibrosis who must keep a safe distance for fear of spreading infection to each other, and the second of two teenage kids in WWII Germany who come from very different backgrounds and who fall for each other despite the mortal dangers this puts them both in. We then wrap up the week with a historical retelling of a particular moment of tragedy in English history that ultimately brought about change for good, but at the expense of those who died and were wounded in the process, which ran into hundreds.

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

'DUMBO' (Rated PG) - with this American fantasy adventure film, Walt Disney Studios continues with its live action reimagining of some of its classic animated features that has already taken in 'The Jungle Book' with 'Alladin' and 'The Lion King' coming later this year too. Inspired by the 1941 Disney animated classic of the same name and based on the book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, the 1941 film was the fourth animated feature film put out by Disney after 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', 'Pinocchio' and 'Fantasia'. Costing US$950K to make the film grossed US$1.6M at the Box Office making it the most financially successful movie of that decade for the studio. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant'.

And so to this live action treatment as Directed by Tim Burton. Here the owner of a small and struggling circus, Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), a war veteran and former circus star to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughing stock in the already ailing circus. But when Holt's children discover that Dumbo can fly, persuasive and ruthless entrepreneur V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and a French trapeze artist named Colette Marchant (Eva Green) swoop in to make the peculiar pachyderm a star and exploit its talents. Also starring Alan Arkin, the film is released in the US this week too.

'US' (Rated MA15+) - and so Jordan Peele here brings us this highly anticipated and already critically acclaimed American psychological horror thriller film, which he also Co-Produced with Jason Blum, and wrote. Following hot on the heels of his previous also acclaimed debut feature 'Get Out' in 2017, here Peele Directs Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke as married couple Adelaide Wilson and Gabriel 'Gabe' Wilson together with their son Jason (Alex Wilson) and daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) who plan on spending some quality family time at their beach house. The family plan on spending this time with good friends Kitty and Josh Tyler (Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker respectively) and their twin kids Gwen and Maggie (Cali and Noelle Sheldon), but their peaceful retreat is shattered when tension and chaos erupts with a group of evil strangers, known as 'The Tethered' who look identical to them, arrive to cause all manner of ill will, mayhem and upset most foul. The film was made for US$20M got its World Premier screening at South by South West on 8th March and went on release in the US last week.

'FIVE FEET APART' (Rated M) - this romantic drama film is Directed by Justin Baldoni and centres around seventeen year old Stella Grant (Haley Lu Richardson) who spends most of her time in hospital as a Cystic Fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control. However, all of this is put to the test when she meets Will Newman (Cole Sprouse), an impossibly charming teen who suffers from the same illness. There's an instant attraction, even though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them - five feet no less. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace their relationship. The film cost US$7M to make, has so far recouped US$35M following its release in the US on 15th March and has so far garnered mixed or average Reviews.

'WHERE HANDS TOUCH' (Rated M) - here British Ghanaian Director, Screenwriter and Actress Amma Asante brings us this fictionalised historical WWII romantic coming of age drama film in which 15 year old Leyna (Amandla Stenberg), daughter of a white German mother Kerstin (Abbie Cornish) and a black French-African soldier father stationed in Germany after the end of the First World War, who lives in fear because of the colour of her skin. When she and her mother relocate to Berlin for safety reasons Leyna meets Lutz (George MacKay), the son of a prominent SS officer and a compulsory member of the Hitler Youth, the two fall helplessly in love, ultimately placing both their lives in danger. Seen through the eyes of a bi-racial teen as she witnesses the persecution of Jews and those deemed 'non-pure', the film has received generally poor Reviews to date, saw its Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was released in the US in mid-September and has so far taken less than US$70K at the Box Office.

'PETERLOO' (Rated M) - Mike Leigh, that highly acclaimed British Writer and Director of such notable fare over the years as 'Secrets & Lies', 'Topsy-Turvy', 'Vera Drake' and 'Mr. Turner' most recently, here delivers us this British historical drama recounting the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. To put some historical context around the event, on 16th August 1819, a crowd of some 60,000 people from Manchester and the surrounding towns and villages gathered in St Peter’s Fields, Manchester to demand Parliamentary reform and an extension of voting rights. The gathering had been peaceful but in the attempt to arrest a leader of the meeting, the armed government militia panicked and set upon the crowd. As many as fifteen people were killed and up to seven hundred were wounded. The immediate effect of the massacre was a crackdown on reform, as the authorities feared the country was heading towards armed rebellion. The film was screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year, went on release in the UK in early November, gets its US release on 5th April, and has generated largely favourable Reviews. The film stars Rory Kinnear, Tim McInnerny, Patrick Kennedy and Maxine Peake.

With five 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-

GET OUT : Tuesday 9th May 2017.

'GET OUT', made for just US$4.5M this comedy horror film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele in his debut in the Directors chair, and has so far grossed US$207M and has received much critical acclaim. Jordan Peele is one half of the Comedy Central sketch series pairing of Key & Peele. His film, seen as a satire on racism in the United States in the present day, points at the underbelly of middle class conservatives interwoven with an effective horror story, stands now as the highest grossing film Directed by a black film maker, and has also claimed the spot previously occupied by 1999's 'The Blair Witch Project' as the highest grossing debut film based on an original screenplay in Hollywood history. Not bad credentials at all!

The film opens up with a black guy, Andre Hayworth (LaKeith Stanfield) speaking on his mobile phone while walking down a leafy suburban street late at night. A white car approaches him, with loud music blaring out of the window, and an unseen driver. The car circles around and approaches from behind a nervous looking Andre, who is clearly out of his comfort zone. Andre crosses the street keen to avoid any confrontation, and is then beaten over the head by an unknown assailant and dragged back towards the white car - drivers side door and rear boot open. Bundled up, unconscious in the boot of the car, it speeds off into the night.

Some months later, we are introduced to black photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). They have been together for five months now, and they are preparing to visit Allison's parents at their country estate for the weekend. Chris expresses some concern that Allison has not yet told her parents that he is black, but quickly dismisses his concerns when she reassures him that they are non-racial progressive thinking types who would have voted for Obama a third time given the chance. They load up the car and head on out driving in the clear light of day, chatting, laughing and joking most of the way.

Upon arriving at the country estate of parents Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) a retired neurosurgeon and Missy Armitage (Catherine Keener) a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist and brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) the family  attempt to allay any fears that Chris may have about their concerns of an inter-racial relationship. Pretty soon, however, Chris notices the black groundsman Walter (Marcus Henderson) and black housekeeper Georgina (Betty Gabriel) and how their behaviour seems very strange and distant, let alone the fact that an all white family have black servants about the place, in this day and age!

Later that night when Chris can't sleep, and craving a cigarette, he ventures outside. Upon re-entering the house, attempting to be quiet, he walks past a lounge room in which Missy is sitting drinking tea. She invites Chris in to sit down opposite him, holding her cup and saucer in one hand and stirring it with a teaspoon with the other. The sound of the spoon stirring is repetitive and Missy keeps on stirring, while she questions Chris about his mother who was killed in a hit and run accident when he was just eleven.

While they talk, although Chris doesn't realise it, he is hypnotised by Missy to the rhythmic sounds of a spoon stirring a tea cup. He is paralysed to the chair, and Missy orders his conscious mind to a place she refers to as 'the sunken place'. Chris wakes up the next morning from a deep sleep, not knowing how he got fully clothed into bed, realising that Missy had hypnotised him to get him off the cigarettes, or so he at first believes.

The next day at the Armitage household is an annual lawn party held for all white close friends to attend. The guests are all mostly elderly and they take more than an active interest in Chris, asking blatant questions about his ethnicity, race, culture, which needless to say uneases Chris. He notices a black guest who introduces himself as Logan King and who is accompanied by an elderly white lady. Chris notices some bizarre behaviour by Logan and senses that the two have met before, but chooses to say nothing. He secretly attempts to take a photograph of Logan with his mobile phone but the flash from the camera sets Logan off with a nosebleed and then a hysterical confrontation at which Logan yells 'get out' at Chris. Dean shrugs off the episode as a epileptic seizure and when Logan re-emerges from a room with Missy, it is as though nothing ever happened! Chris however, is not so sure.

As the afternoon wears on, Chris and Rose walk the grounds away from the party guests. Chris has become concerned about the strange goings on and persuades Rose that they should leave that night. Meanwhile, Dean holds an auction in their absence, with a large framed portrait sized picture of  Chris by his side. The winning bid for Chris goes to Jim Hudson (Stephen Root) a blind art dealer who is aware of Chris' keen eye for photography. Meanwhile Chris has been able to reach out to his good friend Rod Williams (Lil Rel Howery) who works for the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and who is also dog minding and house sitting for Chris and Rose while they are away.  Chris tells Rod of his observations and sends the photograph of Logan over for Rod to do some investigative work.

While packing up in readiness to leave, Rod advises Chris that Logan (LaKeith Stanfield) is in fact Andre Hayworth who vanished mysteriously six months ago, and who is both known to them. While Rose's back is turned, Chris notices a closet door left ajar and sticks his head inside to investigate. Inside he uncovers a shoe box of photographs of Rose up close and personal with what appear to black boyfriends - lots of individual pictures of her and black men. Chris's need to leave takes on a new sense of urgency. As he attempts to do so and Rose seems to fumble for her missing car keys, so his exit from the house is blocked by Dean, Missy, Jeremy, and Rose. Missy gives a simple command and Chris crashes to the floor totally incapacitated.

Chris comes round strapped to a chair, in front of a old television screen, which blurts out a video explaining why he is tied to the chair and the next steps for him. It seems that the family have developed a method of transplanting the brains of their older family and friends into the bodies of younger black people, that are pre-selected by Rose and prepared by hypnosis by Missy. Hence Walter, Georgina and Logan's strange behaviours. Jim Hudson purchased Chris for this purpose, so that he can be the host and regain his sight.

Whilst Dean is prepping Jim Hudson for the brain transplant in his own private home surgery, Jeremy is sent to collect Chris. Chris however, has an ace up his sleeve and is able to out fox Missy's hypnotic commands when Jeremy least expected it and is able to effect his escape, but not before dispensing with several family members. As Chris exists the house in Jeremy's car, he mows down Georgina, and in his childhood guilt over the death of his mother in a hit and run accident, goes back to check on the downed housekeeper. He loads her into the car, and she quickly comes round turning on Chris, causing him to crash the car into a tree, so killing Georgina on impact.

Rose who has been locked way in her bedroom, surfing the internet for her next unsuspecting black boyfriend, hears the commotion and appears at the front door brandishing a shotgun as she and Walter go in pursuit of an already injured, shaken and unhinged Chris. For what happens next, you'll just have to watch the film.

It's easy to see why this film has garnered so much positive press and the record breaking Box Office receipts it has. The film is at once a smart and relevant satire coupled with sharp wit and a modern horror story that delivers a thought provoking, effective and entertaining package. The first half of the film slowly sets the tone amidst racial jibes and effective hints that something may be amiss at the Armitage Estate, or maybe Chris is just over reacting being the minority in the room and therefore on edge anyhow. But the second half lets loose with the nightmare that awaits Chris as the tension builds to its bloody, brutal and emotional climax, at which point the comedy drops away to full blown horror, ending with a comedic note as the screen fades to black. A clever film, very well told, that sets Jordan Peele up there as a Writer/Director to watch out for based on the calibre of this inaugural offering.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-