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-

MR. TURNER : Thursday 5th February 2015.

I received a phone call early yesterday evening to replace a sick friend at an open air screening of 'MR. TURNER' on a clear Sydney evening overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge from Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. Needless to say I was very happy to accept this late invitation, having not yet seen this English/French/German Co-Production Directed by Mike Leigh and starring Timothy Spall in the lead role as Joseph Mallord William Turner - the much acclaimed and highly celebrated English painter who lived from 1775 to 1851, and whose transformational artistic legacy remains as relevant today as it did then.

This film is nominated for four Academy Awards, being Costume Design, Production Design, Cinematography, and Original Score, and interestingly it seems it has been largely snubbed by BAFTA with nominations also for  Costume Design, Production Design, Cinematography and for Make-Up & Hair too. No mentions here of Best Film, Best Director or Best Acting gong's for what would easily be a career best for Timothy Spall, and that you think would be a shoe-in for an English historical telling of one of it's favourite artist sons! If it's any consolation Timothy Spall has won Best Actor Awards for his portrayal of Turner at The Cannes Film Festival, and by the London and New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics.

The story here opens up sometime in the 1820's and we are quickly introduced to the principle characters being Turner himself, his father William Turner (Paul Jesson) a retired barber and wig maker  of some repute who now is Turner's assistant of sorts - buying exotic paint powders, mixing the paint and making canvas's of the right size for his son's artistic requirements. He is suffering with poor health increasingly, but stoically carries on for the love of his son and his craft - the two are obviously very close and when he dies in 1829 Turner Junior takes it very hard. Up to that point they had lived together in a sizeable house in London for some 30 years with their housekeeper Hanna Danby (played convincingly by Dorothy Atkinson). Danby had been Turner's housekeeper for forty years and the film depicts her (perhaps secret) love for him more that he for her, but nonetheless Turner exploited her for occasional sex throughout their many years together and despite his continued comings and goings she remained ever faithful. She survived him by only two years after his death in 1851 - having been a long term sufferer of psoriasis, which in time spread across her whole body.

Turner grew up in Margate - a small coastal fishing village which he started to return to later in life to paint and seek inspiration for his works. During an early visit he boarded with Sophia Booth (Marion Bailey) and her ageing husband in a small terrace cottage right on the harbour frontage, in a first floor room that looked out across the sea. He would return their year on year for many years during the summer months to paint and explore, and returning one year we learn of the death of Sophia's husband. Turner fairly quickly makes a move and before you know it they are an item and have consummated their feelings for one another. As the landlady with the mostest she becomes Turner's second lover and eventually she sells up in Margate so that they can both move together to a small little desirable residence in Chelsea on the banks of the River Thames. Throughout this period neither lover knows of the other - there is no marriage and there are no children, although Turner had two daughters by his first lover - Sarah Danby (played very po-faced by Ruth Sheen) who he distanced himself from and in time denied their existence - one died in childbirth in 1843 aged 32.

All of this is set against the backdrop of his painting; his studio time spent stabbing maniacally at his canvas to accentuate colour and depth in his artwork . . . often aided by a wad of spit; his toing and froing between London and Margate and then Chelsea; his membership at the Royal Academy of Arts and his interaction with his many contemporaries of the time; how well (or not) his works are received by the public, the critics and by Royalty; and as he grows older his own failing health, his increasing eccentricities and the legacy of his works which he remains steadfast will stay in England even when offered one hundred thousand pounds for them all back in 1850 by Joseph Gillott.

Timothy Spall excels in this role and is larger than life as J.M.W. Turner - his almost perpetual grunting; his mannerisms; his recreation of the colourful, almost prose like language of the time; his energy and enthusiasm; his triumph's and his tragedies; his then failing health; and his unwavering commitment to his craft that produced the legacy we have today.

Mike Leigh faithfully recreates the mood and the tone of the time in intimate detail and extracts from his cast nuanced performances that complete this whole package that will leave you wanting to Google 'J.M.W. Turner' after the credits roll to fill in the gaps that this film could not plug, but which nonetheless do not detract from what a great story this is, deftly handled and beautifully delivered.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Friday 26th December 2014.

Merry Christmas to the national and international readership of this Blog, and best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy and safe festive season from your friends at Odeon Online.

And so the biggest day in the movie release year is upon us with another raft of new film content coming to our big screens on Boxing Day. December kicked off with ten new release movies and then the brakes were applied in successive weeks in anticipation of the Christmas week releases to capitalise upon the holiday season and some eagerly awaited offerings that once again are sure to offer something for everyone.

For the week ahead then we have the epic final chapter in a monumental saga that has been fifteen years in the making; one of Australia's favourite sons has turned Director for the first time to deliver us a tale of WW1 in the wake of Gallipoli; Disney Studio's have come good with their animation to deliver us a heart warming futuristic story that ticks many boxes; then there is probably Hollywood's most grumpy old man who forges an unlikely friendship with his polar opposite in almost every sense, that is being touted as a long-term best for this grumpy old Actor; we then have an English period piece about a renowned ageing painter as he struggles in his later years to come to terms with what is going on all around him; and finally, and next up is the third instalment in another successful franchise that reunites a familiar cast and a Hollywood great that we sadly lost earlier this year.

There it is then, six new films to tempt, tease and tantalise your taste buds with big screen entertainment that will deliver on spectacle; be sure to  surprise and delight; make you laugh and maybe make you choke back a tear and all will certainly entertain in 2D or 3D over the coming week. Drop me a Comment when you've chosen your filmic entertainment in the week ahead and sat through the experience, and share your views and opinions with your favourite movie Blog and the cinema going world. We'll be pleased to hear from you!

THE HOBBIT : THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (Rated M) - Peter Jackson's closing chapter in his 'Hobbit' trilogy brings to an end over fifteen years of film making that started the J.R.R. Tolkien saga with the first instalment of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy in 2001 and which went on to yield US$2.92B in Box Office receipts off a US$281M production budget. This series of three has so far cost US$745M to bring to the big screen and has made (out of the first two films) US$2.13B, so looks set to surpass the global haul from all three L.O.T.R films if past performance is anything to go by.

Following on from where 'The Desolation of Smaug' left off, we see the same bunch of characters led by Bilbo recapture Erebor as Smaug has fled and in so doing destroys Laketown. With Bilbo and the dwarves led by an increasingly obsessive and distant Thorin, they must now protect The Lonely Mountain with the help of the Elves, Men and The Great Eagles against an oncoming army of Orcs unleashed by the evil enemy Sauron. Effects laden, CGI heavy with huge set-pieces culminating in the battle to end all battles (until the next one), 'The Battle of Five Armies' has already earned US$358M since its US and European release earlier in December. A must see, with expectations running high and given what we know Peter Jackson is more than capable of.

THE WATER DIVINER (Rated M) - Russell Crowe here delivers his Directorial debut, and stars in this telling of Water Diviner Joshua Connor (Crowe) who makes the journey from his native Australia to Gallipoli in search of his three missing sons in the aftermath of that tragic battle in World War 1. Four years have passed since, and in travelling to Turkey he forges a relationship with the owner of the hotel where he is staying in Istanbul, Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) and enlists the help of Australian Lt. Col Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney) and his Turkish opposite Major Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan) to search for his missing boys. Will his water divining skills enable him to devine his missing-in-action-presumed-dead sons and so bring them home to Australia to be laid to rest in peace in there. This of course is the crux of the story intertwined with beautiful Turkish scenery, some Hollywood screen magic, and a story of endless hope, courage, faith, determination, love and friendship amidst the backdrop of tragedy, loss and death on an unfathomable scale.

ST. VINCENT (Rated M) - this Comedy Drama stars an A-List Hollywood Actor known for being grumpy and who has become very selective in the roles he now plays, and with whom. Originally intended for Jack Nicholson who turned it down, the role ended up with Bill Murray who puts in a tour-de-force as Vietnam Vet Vincent who has led a squandering stubbornly self-satisfied life which in his twilight years have left him with next to nothing. When Vincent's new neighbours need a babysitter for teenage son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher), Vincent agrees, but for a fee. What unfolds is an unlikely friendship between these two polar opposites as Vincent downloads on Oliver his adult experiences of alcohol, gambling, bad food, loose women and over indulgence in life. What Oliver offers Vincent is an inward looking view of a lonely existence and a secret past that perhaps he would prefer laid to rest but must now confront - particularly as life events take an unexpected turn for the worse for Vincent leading both to move in a direction that neither they or those around them could ever have imagined. Directed and Written by Theodore Melfi and starring too Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts and Chris O'Dowd.

MR. TURNER (Rated M) - this is the story of 19th Century English landscape and seascape painter J.M.W. Turner as played by Timothy Spall. Set during the last 25 years of his life this is a detailed, nuanced, finely balanced film that sees Turner at the height of his fame, popularity and output but torn between his ever faithful housekeeper and mistress of 40 years, Hannah Danby (Dorothy Atkinson) and his seaside landlady with whom he forms a relationship, Sophia Booth (Marion Bailey) and eventually resides in Chelsea unbeknownst to most, and where he eventually dies. During this time, the film charts the many exploits and idiosyncrasies of Turner - the man, the artist, the eccentric, the socialite and the obsessive. Spall gives a career defining performance in this Mike Leigh Directed film that could well be the sleeper hit at the upcoming Academy Awards.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM : SECRET OF THE TOMB (Rated PG) - Directed by Shawn Levy this film stars two Hollywood greats who very sadly passed away earlier this year - Mickey Rooney as Gus reprising his role from the first film and Robin Williams who has appeared in all three as Teddy Roosevelt. Ben Stiller is back at Larry Daily the night watchman at New York's Museum of Natural History only now he has gained promotion to 'Director of Night-time Operations'. The 'tablet' which gives the museum artifacts the power to become animated at night-time is beginning to lose its powers, and as such those exhibits are beginning to exhibit some strange behaviours. Investigating further Larry learns that the tablet's powers are not infinite and that 'the end will come', only now sooner rather than later. The only way to prevent this is to travel to London to the British Museum of Natural History and the origin of the tablet that can only be regenerated by moonlight. As the tablets powers begin to wane so does the staying power of the animated exhibits who begin to age and turn back to wax. As the tablet falls into the wrong hands of an  historical English figure, a race against time begins in the London museum and across the city as Larry and his friends seek to retrieve the tablet before it crumbles away to dust forever, and any chance of retaining its magic disappears completely. Starring also Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Ben Kingsley, Dick Van Dyke and a host of historical figures, animals and set pieces this is sure to please for a number of reasons, including those aforementioned two late great Hollywood legends.

BIG HERO 6 (Rated PG) - Disney Studio's have pulled out all the stops to bring this animated feature to life and in doing so have created a delightful story with heart, great visuals, an east meets west backdrop and the rich pedigree of Marvel Comics. Following on from their recent success too with 'Frozen' this is set in a futuristic San Fransokyo and sees an oversize inflatable health-care robot called 'Baymax' (a mix of the 'Michelin Man' and 'Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man') who was designed to be activated upon hearing the word 'ouch' and continues administering aid until the 'patient' proclaims 'I am satisfied with your care'! This is all good until our hero of the piece - young Hiro (voiced by Ryan Potter) whose recently killed older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) was working on various robotic devices with his friends GoGo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Fred and of course Baymax at the local University. Hiro himself is a robot whizz and so he and Baymax adopt each other with a view to continuing brother Tadashi's work. But all is not well as they soon discover, and someone else is mass producing robots for potential unsavoury gain, and so Baymax is re-programmed by Hiro to thwart the no-good enemy, discover the truth behind his brothers death, and ultimately continue the good work his brother had initiated. This film is Directed by Don hall and Chris Williams and stars the voice talents too of Scott Adsit as Baymax, Damon Wyans Jnr. as Wasabi and James Cromwell as Professor Callaghan amongst others. There is an animated short film shown before the main event and remain seated through the credits for additional footage that lays the foundation for a possible sequel.

Wow - some big releases this coming week as you would expect for Boxing Day. Get out there and see something on the big screen and take in the spectacle of what these films have to offer - something for everyone, young and young at heart. Plenty of choice - enjoy your movies, enjoy Christmas, best wishes, and we'll report next week for the first of 2015's new releases.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-