THE GUILTY : Wednesday 6th October 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the 11th October, and as a result all cinema's closed until this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa at home this week is the American crime thriller 'THE GUILTY', Directed and Co-Produced by Antoine Fuqua, whose previous film making credits take in the likes of 'Training Day' in 2001 with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, 'Shooter' in 2007 with Mark Wahlberg, 'Olympus Has Fallen' in 2013 with Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart, 'The Equalizer' and 'The Equalizer 2' in 2014 and 2018 respectively both with Denzel Washington, 'Southpaw' in 2015 with Jake Gyllenhaal and 'Infinite' this year too with Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. This film is based on the 2018 Danish film of the same name Directed and Co-Written by Gustav Moller who also serves as an Executive Producer here. It saw its World Premier screening at TIFF in mid-September this year, had a limited US theatrical release from 24th September and was then released onto Netflix on 1st October. It has garnered mostly positive Critical Reviews. 

Here then, Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is working the night shift at a 911 call centre, while he awaits to attend court the next day for an incident that occurred eight months ago while he was on duty patrolling the streets of Los Angeles with his partner. He has subsequently been demoted to the call centre pending the outcome of his court case. Out of control wild fires rage across large tracts of California and are steadily encroaching upon LA. We see Baylor fielding several calls, including a business executive, Matthew Fontenot (voiced by Paul Dano), stranded inside his rented BMW 7 series held captive by a pink haired voluptuous Hispanic prostitute; then from a crashed cyclist with a knee injury; then from a woman whose house is on fire; and a guy calling from a nightclub. 

In the meantime he takes an unexpected call on his mobile phone from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times wanting his side of the story in advance of his court appearance tomorrow, which he in no uncertain terms rebuffs. He also attempts to call his recently separated and soon to be ex-wife Jess (voiced by Gillian Zinser) wanting to say goodnight to his young daughter. 

He then answers a call from a young woman named Emily Lighton (voiced by Riley Keogh) who tells him in a high state of anxiety that she has been abducted. Baylor keeps her talking, making out that she is speaking with her young daughter, and learns that she and her abductor are traveling in a white van, but Emily is forced to hang up before she can provide more details. Baylor calls the California Highway Patrol (voiced by Da'Vine Joy Randolph) but they cannot locate the van because of the heavy smoke haze from approaching wild fires and the unknown license plate number. 

Desperate to get more information, Baylor calls Emily's home phone number and Abby answers, Emily's six year old daughter (voiced by Christiana Montoya) who is seemingly home alone with her younger brother Oliver who is sleeping. Abby is distraught telling Baylor that her Mum left them home alone after going off with their Dad, Henry. Abby provides Henry's mobile phone number from which he is able to look up the van licence plate number and get more details on Henry's record of assault and his time in prison. He relays the licence plate details to the CHP, and contacts his former Sergeant Bill Miller (voiced by Ethan Hawke) asking him to send a patrol car around to Emily's house and to check on Abby and Oliver.  He calls Henry (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), threatens him and demands to know his intentions with Emily, but Henry hangs up on him. Baylor then calls his former partner Rick (voiced by Eli Goree) and asks that he visits Henry's house to gather whatever clues he can as to where Henry may be taking Emily. On that phone call, at 2:00am in the morning, Rick expresses concern to Baylor about the testimony he is to give at tomorrows court hearing.

Baylor takes a call from Abby in a panic when two LAPD officers arrive at the door, and he tells her to let them in. Over the phone, he overhears that the officers notice blood on Abby's hands and nightdress and find Oliver in the bedroom seemingly dead. Joe calls Emily back and tells her to pull the handbrake, which she does, but it fails to crash the van. Henry puts Emily into the back of the van. When Henry stops the van and tries to remove Emily from the back, she hits him with a brick and flees.

In the meantime, Rick has gained entry into Henry's house and finds documents from a psychiatric treatment facility where Emily had been a patient. Joe calls back Henry, who explains he was taking Emily back to the facility and that she had been off her meds for a few weeks because they couldn't afford them and, during a psychotic episode, unintentionally hurt Oliver. Henry says he did not report the incident to the authorities because he wanted to protect Emily and has no faith in the 'system'.

Emily calls Baylor back from somewhere on the freeway, implying that she is preparing to commit suicide by jumping off an overpass because she believed Oliver had 'snakes in his stomach' and that she 'took them out'. Joe directs the CHP to her location while attempting to talk her down. He attempts to distract her and keep her talking by revealing that he killed a 19-year-old boy while on duty because he was angry and wanted to punish him for hurting someone. He pleads with Emily that Abby loves and needs her and that he promised Abby that she would come home. Over the phone, Baylor hears patrol cars and officers arrive, as the line is cut off.

Soon afterwards the CHP calls Baylor to inform him that they got Emily down safely, and Sergeant Denise Wade (Christina Vidal) sticks her head around the door to advise that Oliver is alive and in the Intensive Care Unit. As she leaves she says to Baylor 'broken people help broken people, as a back handed compliment. A short time later, in the mens room, a distraught Baylor vomits before calling Rick and tells him to tell the truth at the hearing. Rick says he can't and if he does it will be years before he sees his daughter again. Sobbing, Baylor tells Rick again what he must do at the hearing. He then calls the LA Times reporter to tell her that he intends to plead guilty at the trial. News reports after the hearing indicate that Baylor is only the fourth Police Officer to be sentenced to prison for manslaughter. 

I never did see the original Danish film from 2018 of which this is a Hollywood remake, and as such I can't draw any comparisons between the two. Suffice to say, this taught, tense and emotional drama which takes place over a single night shift in a sparsely manned Police call centre, maintained my interest throughout, and while Gyllenhaal is in just about every frame for its ninety minute running time, he inhibits the role of fractured Joe Baylor, puts in a very convincing and powerful performance and proves his worth again as one of the finest Actors of his generation. Shot within the confines of two rooms, over the course of just eleven days and in the middle of a pandemic Antoine Fuqua has proven here too his ability to make a lot out of a little particularly when you have an Actor of Gyllenhaal's stature doing the heavy lifting supported by the equally convincing voice of Riley Keogh on the other end of the phone. If you haven't seen the original, then you could do worse than hunt this remake out as it will keep you on the edge of your seat from the get go.

'The Guilty' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

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

Finally, after all the hype, the melodrama, the controversy over a Host, the wranglings over what awards should be televised and those that shouldn't, whether all five best original songs should be performed live or just a proposed two, and the inclusion of a new populist film award, the 91st Academy Awards were held on Sunday evening 24th February 2019 at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. This years ceremony was the first in three decades, since the 61st Academy Awards in 1989, to be conducted with no Host after the withdrawal of Kevin Hart as the 'chosen one' due to past jokes and adverse comments about certain demographics ten years ago came back to haunt him. Sad but true!

Now the dust has settled on this years Oscar's gig, in case you missed all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood's Night of Nights, here is the list of those winners and grinners who walked away with a golden statue, and those that didn't!

* Best Picture : won by 'GREEN BOOK', beating out 'Black Panther', 'BlacKkKlansman', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'The Favourite', 'Roma', 'A Star Is Born' and 'Vice'.
* Best Director : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA' beating out Spike Lee for 'BlacKkKlansman', Paweł Pawlikowski for 'Cold War', Yorgos Lanthimos for 'The Favourite' and Adam McKay for 'Vice'.

* Best Foreign Language Film : won by 'ROMA' (Mexico), beating out 'Capernaum' (Lebanon), 'Cold War' (Poland), 'Never Look Away' (Germany) and 'Shoplifters' (Japan).
* Best Documentary Feature : won by 'FREE SOLO', beating out 'Hale County This Morning, This Evening', 'Minding the Gap', 'Of Fathers and Sons' and 'RBG'.
* Best Animated Feature : won by 'SPIDER-MAN : INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE', beating out 'Incredibles 2', 'Isle of Dogs', 'Mirai' and 'Ralph Breaks the Internet'.

* Best Actor : won by RAMI MALEK for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY', beating out Christian Bale for 'Vice' as Dick Cheney, Bradley Cooper for 'A Star Is Born' as Jackson 'Jack' Maine, Willem Dafoe for 'At Eternity's Gate' as Vincent van Gogh and Viggo Mortensen for 'Green Book' as Frank 'Tony Lip' Vallelonga.

* Best Actress : won by OLIVIA COLMAN for her portrayal of Anne, Queen of Great Britain in 'THE FAVOURITE', beating out Yalitza Aparicio for 'Roma' as Cleodegaria 'Cleo' Gutiérrez, Glenn Close for 'The Wife' as Joan Castleman, Lady Gaga for 'A Star Is Born' as Ally Maine and Melissa McCarthy for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' as Lee Israel.
* Best Supporting Actor : won by MAHERSHALA ALI for his portrayal of Dr. Don Shirley in 'GREEN BOOK', beating out Adam Driver for 'BlacKkKlansman' as Philip 'Flip' Zimmerman, Sam Elliott for 'A Star Is Born' as Bobby Maine, Richard E. Grant for 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' as Jack Hock and Sam Rockwell for 'Vice' as George W. Bush.

* Best Supporting Actress : won by REGINA KING for her portrayal of Sharon Rivers in 'IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK', beating out Amy Adams for 'Vice' as Lynne Cheney, Marina de Tavira for 'Roma' as Sofía, Emma Stone for 'The Favourite' as Abigail Masham and Rachel Weisz for 'The Favourite' as Sarah Churchill.
* Best Original Screenplay : won by 'GREEN BOOK' Co-Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly, beating out 'The Favourite', 'First Reformed', 'Roma' and 'Vice'.

* Best Adapted Screenplay : won by 'BLACKKKLANSMAN' Co-Written for the Screen by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee and based on the book by Ron Stallworth, beating out 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs', 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?', 'If Beale Street Could Talk' and 'A Star Is Born'.
* Best Original Score : won for 'BLACK PANTHER', beating out 'BlacKkKlansman', 'If Beale Street Could Talk', 'Isle of Dogs' and 'Mary Poppins Returns'.



* Best Original Song : won for 'SHALLOW' from 'A STAR IS BORN' by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt, beating out 'All the Stars' from 'Black Panther', 'I'll Fight' from 'RBG', 'The Place Where Lost Things Go' from 'Mary Poppins Returns' and 'When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings' from 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'.
* Best Cinematography : won by ALFONSO CUARON for 'ROMA', beating out 'Cold War', 'The Favourite', 'Never Look Away' and 'A Star is Born'.

* Best Visual Effects : won by 'FIRST MAN' beating out 'Avengers : Infinity War', 'Christopher Robin', 'Ready Player One' and 'Solo : A Star Wars Story'.
* And in the remaining categories, 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' won Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing; 'BLACK PANTHER' won for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design; and 'VICE' won for Best Make Up and Hair Styling.

You can catch all the highlights, the reports, the stories and the clips, at the official website at : oscar.go.com

This week then there are four latest release films coming to your local Odeon. Kicking off with a bunch of old codgers with a plan to commit an audacious cash & jewellery heist over the Easter long weekend, their plan is successful until their infighting afterwards leads to distrust and their ultimate demise. We then have a horror drama that plays out with a young good Samaritan returning a seemingly lost handbag to its older rightful owner, leading to an instant bond between the two but all is not as it seems as the older lady here starts to reveal a sinister pre-meditated agenda. Next we turn to a true story of a displaced man's best friend and that canine friend trekking over four hundred miles and several adventures later to get back to its rightful owner; and we then close out the week with a psychological thriller of a Police Emergency Call Centre operative taking a call from a distraught female with a cryptic clue that she has been abducted by her ex-husband, and so begins this real time taughtly woven game of cat & mouse.

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. 

'KING OF THIEVES' (Rated M) - Directed by Brit James Marsh whose previous film making credits include 'Man On Wire', 'Project Nim', 'The Theory of Everything', 'The Mercy' most recently and now this true life British crime drama. The film tells the story of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Burglary that took place over the Easter long weekend back in 2015. To give some context, this was an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area which is a commercial precinct in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, close to the City of London's boundary. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who established a mansion in the area. Hatton Garden is famous as London's jewellery quarter and the centre of the UK diamond trade. This speciality established itself in the early 19th Century, to the point where today there are nearly 300 businesses in the jewellery industry and over 55 shops, representing the largest cluster of jewellery retailers in the UK.

A famous thief in his younger days, 77 year old widower Brian Reader (Michael Caine) pulls together a band of misfit criminals to plot an unprecedented burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. The thieves, all in their 60's and 70's except for one, use their old-school thieving skills to plan the heist over the Easter long weekend. Posing as gas repairmen, they enter the deposit, neutralise the alarms, and proceed to drill a hole into the wall of the safe. Two days later, they manage to escape with allegedly over £200M worth of stolen jewels and money, although court reports later on reduce that sum down to £14M, which was described as the 'largest burglary in English legal history'. Nonetheless, when the Police arrive on the scene and the investigation begins, the cracks between the misfit gang members begin to emerge as they argue over how to share the spoils with brutal greed and then a fierce distrust of each other begins to set in. Also starring Ray Winstone, Tom Courtney, Jim Broadbent, Michael Gambon, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Cox. The film was released in the UK back in September 2018, and has garnered mixed Reviews.

'GRETA' (Rated MA15+) - this horror drama offering is Directed and Co-Written by Neil Jordan whose previous big screen credits over a long and distinguished career take in 'The Company of Wolves', 'Mona Lisa', 'We're No Angels', 'The Crying Game', 'Interview with the Vampire', 'Michael Collins', 'The End of the Affair' and 'The Brave One' amongst others. The film saw its World Premier screening at last years TIFF in early September, and only now does it get a release in Australia, and in the US this week too. Here Frances McCullen (Chloe Grace Moretz) finds a handbag on the New York subway and dutifully returns it to Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert), an eccentric French piano teacher who loves tea and classical music. Having recently lost her mother, the young Frances grows closer to the kindly widow. Within no time, the the two become firm friends, but Greta's maternal charms begin to dissolve and grow increasingly disturbing as Frances discovers that nothing in Greta's life is quite what it seems and she must now end the rapidly changing relationship before things spiral out of control. Also starring Maika Monroe, Stephen Rea and Colm Feore.

'A DOG'S WAY HOME' (Rated PG) - here Actor, Writer and Director Charles Martin Smith brings us this family adventure story based on the true story as recounted in the book of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron. The film was released in the USA in early January and has so far grossed US$69M off the back of its US$18M production budget and has generated mixed or average Reviews. As a puppy, Bella (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard) finds her way into the arms of Lucas (Jonah Hauer-King), a young man who gives her a good home in Denver, Colorado. When Bella becomes separated from Lucas, she soon finds herself on an epic 400-mile journey from Farmington, New Mexico back to Denver to reunite with her beloved owner. Along the way, the lost but spirited dog touches the lives of an orphaned mountain lion, a down-on-his-luck veteran and some friendly strangers who happen to cross her path on this epic journey that will take two years to complete, if she can survive that long. Also starring Ashley Judd, Edward James Olmos, and Alexandra Shipp.

'THE GUILTY' ('DEN SKYLDIGE') (Rated M) - this Danish psychological thriller known as 'Den Skyldige' in its native tongue, is Directed by first timer Gustav Moller, saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival way back in January 2018, was selected as the Danish entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category at the upcoming Academy Awards, in total has so far won 27 awards around the festival and awards circuit and been nominated for another 31, and has received widespread Critical acclaim. Here Asger Holm (Jakob Cedergren) is a Policeman who’s been demoted temporarily to working the phones in the emergency call centre of his local Police Force after one too many at-work misdemeanours. When a terrified woman named Iben (voiced by Jessica Dinnage) calls him to say she’s being abducted by her ex-husband and the call is then suddenly disconnected, Asger will need to use every bit of his ingenuity and policing skills to find her before it's too late. Taking place entirely within the confines of Asger’s secluded and enclosed emergency services room, and in real time, this film has been praised for ramping up the tension, the sound design and for Cedergren's compelling performance.

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-