Birthdays to share this week : 28th September - 4th October.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Do you share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer or Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Check out too the spotlight on this weeks Birthday Girl who celebrates on 4th October, Susan Sarandon, at the end of this feature.

Sunday 28th September

• Naomi Watts - Born 1968, turns 46 - Actress | Producer
• Mira Sorvino - Born 1967, turns 47 - Actress | Producer
• Hilary Duff - Born 1987, turns 27 - Actress | Singer
• Brigitte Bardot - Born 1934, turns 80 - Actress | Singer

Monday 29th September

• Ian McShane - Born 1942, turns 72 - Actor
• Nicolas Winding Refn - Born 1970, turns 44 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Luke Goss - Born 1968, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Matt Goss - Born 1968, turns 46 - Singer

Tuesday 30th September

• Marion Cotillard - Born 1975, turns 39 - Actress | Singer
• Monica Bellucci - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actress
• Fran Drescher - Born 1957, turns 57 - Actress | Writer | Producer
• Angie Dickinson - Born 1931, turns 83 - Actress
• Eric Stoltz - Born 1961, turns 53 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Ian Ogilvy - Born 1943, turns 71 - Actor

Wednesday 1st October

• Julie Andrews - Born 1935, turns 79 - Actress | Singer
• Zach Galifianakis - Born 1969, turns 45 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Randy Quaid - Born 1950, turns 64 - Actor

Thursday 2nd October

• Sting - Born 1951, turns 63 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor

Friday 3rd October 

• Clive Owen - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actor | Producer
• Seann William Scott - Born 1976, turns 38 - Actor | Producer
• Gwen Stefani - Born 1969, turns 45 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress
• Ashley Simpson - Born 1984, turns 30 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress
• Neve Campbell - Born 1973, turns 41- Actress | Producer

Saturday 4th October

• Susan Sarandon - Born 1946, turns 68 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Alicia Silverstone - Born 1976, turns 38 - Actress
• Liev Schreiber - Born 1967, turns 47 - Actor
• Christoph Waltz - Born 1956, turns 58 - Actor
• Armand Assante - Born 1949, turns 65 - Actor

Susan Abigail Tomalin was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, and is the oldest of nine children. She graduated from Edison High School where she was cheerleader and attended the Catholic University of America Drama School in Washington DC. from 1964-68 where she first met her future husband Chris Sarandon. They were married from 1967-1979 and it was with him that she attended a casting call in 1969 in New York for roles in the upcoming film 'Joe'. Husband Chris was unlucky and failed to gain a part in the film, but wife Susan scored a major supporting role in the film that was released in 1970.

Following this Sarandon appeared in a number of TV Soap Opera's in the early 70's including 'A World Apart' and 'Search for Tomorrow'. Concurrently she secured roles in 'The Apprentice', 'Lady Liberty', 'The Front Page' and 'Lovin' Molly'. The latter half of the 70's saw her star in cult-classic 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' as Janet in 1975 and that same year alongside Robert Redford in 'The Great Waldo Pepper'.

In 1980 she received her first Academy Award nomination for 'Atlantic City' and throughout that decade she starred in notable films including 'The Hunger', 'The Witches of Eastwick', 'Bull Durham' and 'A Dry White Season' with David Bowie, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Costner and Marlon Brando respectively.

The first half of the 90's brought more critical acclaim with a further three Academy Award nominations for 'Thelma & Louise', 'Lorenzo's Oil', and 'The Client', finally scoring the win for Best Actress in a Lead Role for 'Dead Man Walking' in 1995 alongside Sean Penn.

Since then there has been many other film appearances amounting to a filmography so far of 124 acting credits including 'Stepmom', 'Cradle Will Rock', 'The Banger Sisters', 'Moonlight Mile', 'Alfie', 'Elizabethtown', 'Romance and Cigarettes', 'Irresistible', 'Mr. Woodcock', 'In the Valley of Elah', 'Speed Racer', 'The Lovely Bones', 'Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps', 'Arbitrage', 'Snitch', 'Cloud Atlas', 'The Company You Keep', 'Robot & Frank' and more recently 'Ping Pong Summer', 'Tammy' and 'The Calling' with 'Hell and Back' in post-production currently and 'Mother's Day' filming for a 2015 release.

Sarandon has appeared also or narrated over 40 documentaries from 1983 to the present day, and appeared in almost 40 TV Shows from 1970 to the present day including 'The Simpsons', 'Friends', 'Malcolm in the Middle', 'Mad TV', 'ER', 'The Good Wife', '30 Rock', 'Mike & Molly' and 'Saturday Night Live'. She has also lent her voice talents to 'James and the Giant Peach', 'The Need to Know', 'For the Love of Julian', 'Cats and Dogs' and the upcoming animated feature 'Hell and Back' amongst others.

Her awards haul takes in 51 wins and another 47 nominations including the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role for 'Dead Man Walking' and nominations in the same category for 'The Client', 'Lorenzo's Oil', 'Thelma & Louise' and 'Atlantic City'. She has been nominated eight times for a Golden Globe but has never won, and has a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for 'The Client' and a nomination for 'Thelma & Louise'.

After splitting from her husband of twelve years, Chris, in 1979 she had relationships with Director Louie Malle; then David Bowie with whom she starred in 'The Hunger' and then Italian film maker Franco Amurri with whom she had a daughter Eva Amurri in 1985. From 1989 until 2009 she was with Actor Tim Robbins who Directed her in her Oscar winning 'Dead Man Walking', and with whom she has two sons - Jack Henry Robbins born in 1989, and Miles Robbins born in 1992.

Sarandon is well known for her political, liberal and humanitarian activism supporting such causes as social, environmental and economic justice; anti-racism; anti-2003 Iraq War; and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individual rights. She was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and the Food and Agriculture Organisation Goodwill Ambassador in 2010. She was the recipient of the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award; is a spokesperson for Heifer International - a nonprofit organisation seeking to eradicate poverty and hunger; she co-hosted 'Live 8' in Edinburgh; carried the Olympic Flag at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin; co-hosted the 1993 Academy Awards with partner Tim Robbins; and received the 'World Lifetime Achievement Award' at the 2006 Women's World Awards.

Susan Sarandon - ageing gracefully, still very much in demand, politically and morally outspoken, husky voiced and can often play strong willed and at at time sensuous roles - Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SIN CITY : A DAME TO KILL FOR - Tuesday 23rd September 2014

Before seeing 'SIN CITY : A DAME TO KILL FOR' at my local multiplex earlier this week, I had to reappraise myself with the original film from 2005 that set the bar so very high and introduced us to Frank Miller's gritty, dark, menacing characters inhabiting Basin City where 'Sin City' is based. Directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller back then brought us in to the monochromed world of classic film noir straight from the pages of the graphic novel in all its exaggerated, stylised, violent, sexy beauty. With a strong cast, sharp dialogue, and never before seen imagery on the big screen, the bar was cast high. And so with high expectations for the follow-up and a wait of almost ten years the final analysis shows that 'Sin City : A Dame to Kill For' can only but limbo under the bar of its predecessor, let alone rise above it!

Again, as before, this next instalment is based on four stories - 'Just Another Saturday Night', 'The Long Bad Night, Parts 1&2', 'A Dame to Kill For' and 'Nancy's Last Dance', and we see a number of characters from the first film return this time around - a few played by different actors. The time in which these four chapters play out also weaves back and forth, and the story behind 'A Dame to Kill For' in this film plays out before 'The Big Fat Kill' in the first film with two different actors playing the same character in both . . . so you need to pay attention (Clive Owen then, and now Josh Brolin as Dwight McCarthy, and Michael Clarke-Duncan then, and now Dennis Haysbert as Manute)!

'Just Another Saturday Night' opens the film and once again we meet hulking 300lb meathead Marv (Mickey Rourke) semi-conscious by the side of the road amid a two car pile up and a bunch of strewn dead bodies. Not remembering how he got there or how he came by the nice coat and gloves he is wearing he can recall slugging down some beers at 'Kadies Saloon' and watching Nancy Callahan dance. Sensing though that something ain't quite right he leaves and immediately comes across four young frat boys outside dousing a homeless guy with petrol and brandishing a cigarette lighter. Marv in his own subtle way quickly dispenses with the gang of four and slits the ringleaders throat, which brings him back to the coat and how he acquired it.

'The Long Bad Night Parts 1&2' sandwiches 'A Dame to Kill For' and here we are introduced to young cocky gambler Johnny (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who arrives in Basin City and heads to Kadies Saloon where a high stakes card game is playing out behind closed doors. He initially has success on two poker machines thanks to his Lady Luck, a dancer at the Club called Marcie. They enter the game and take their place opposite Senator Roark (Powers Booth) - the kingpin of Basin City and the most powerful man in the State. Playing for high stakes Johnny cleans out the Senator and leaves taking his Lady Luck for a night on the town to celebrate. On the way back to their hotel they are set upon by the Senator and his henchmen who break three of Johnny's fingers with pliers and shoot him in the leg. Leaving him by the side of the road in agony, Johnny swears revenge. In Part 2, Johnny gets himself fixed up - the bullet removed and his fingers reset and splinted in time for another high stakes game with the Senator the next night, so that he can exact his revenge. . . maybe!

'A Dame to Kill For' reintroduces us to Dwight McCarthy this time played by Josh Brolin struggling with his demons, his turbulent past and his memories of violence and death. Trying to make a fresh start he works as a Private Detective for hire, and is reacquainted with former lover Ava Lord (Eva Green) four years after they split, and she subsequently married wealthy tycoon Damien Lord. Following a clandestine meeting at Kadies Saloon we are reintroduced to Manute (Danis Haysbert) who is the Minder of Ava Lord who she claims is mistreated physically and mentally by her evil corrupt husband. Determined to rescue her and reignite the old flame that once existed between them, Dwight takes the law into his own hands and teams up with Marv to get the job done and overcome the equally hulking Minder Manute. Things don't go well back at the Lord mansion - people die, the husband murdered, the Police get involved and that all goes wrong too! In the end justice is served at the end of a gun, but not before startling revelations, and death, destruction and mayhem all around!

In the final chapter 'Nancy's Last Dance' we meet the grown nineteen year old Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) ten years on from being saved by John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) in 'Sin City'. Nancy is now a dancer at Kadies Salloon and has crawled inside a bottle of late drowning her sorrows in an attempt to forget her one true love (Hartigan) for whom she has held a candle all these years even though he is dead by his own hand at the end of the first film. Hartigan returns as a ghost - unseen and unheard by Nancy or anyone else, and over looking her he sees her pain and is powerless to do anything about it. Nancy wants revenge on Senator Roark for what his son did to her when she was nine and for causing the death (indirectly) of John Hartigan. She enlists the help of Marv to dispense with Roark once and for all and so the two mount a bloody assault on the Roark Estate.

Once more Rodriguez and Miller have amassed a solid ensemble cast that includes, in addition to those already mentioned, Rosario Dawson, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach, Christopher Lloyd, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Meloni and Lady Gaga. All the touchstones are there from the original movie - classic film noir graphic novel vibe; excellent on-screen graphics; some great one-liners especially from Marv; a gritty dangerous dark underworld where it nearly always rains; and exaggerated images and scenes emphasising the style, the look and the feel of a place you really don't wanna go!

Despite all this - I couldn't help thinking that this was over cooked unlike its predecessor. The violence is gratuitously graphic and when you've seen ten on-screen decapitations you've seen them all! Great gushing arcs of spurting blood - deep red or bright white when another arrow pierces a skull; or a head is removed from its shoulders; or bullets rip through an arm, a chest, a head; or a Samurai Sword slices and dices through a limb, a neck, a chest or a stomach; or bodies are thrown asunder from fast moving cars, speeding motor bikes, or from third storey windows. Sometimes less is more, and we saw that to better effect in 'Sin City' and this time by adding more brutality and more T&A to move the plot along and tell us that life in Sin City is cheap, fast and ugly Rodriguez and Miller have done themselves a disservice. 'Sin City : A Dame to Kill For' is certainly worth a look for a whole bunch of reasons, but it does fall short of the expectations from the pair that brought us the first ground breaking film.

-Steve, at OdeonOnline-

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - archive from 25th July 2012.

Saw 'THE DARK KNIGHT RISES' last night, and Wow! what a movie! Chris Nolan has come up trumps once more and proved his mastery for the craft, and each time building on the drama, the spectacle, the suspense and the action from the previous Batman installment, and the one before that!

With a veritable 'Who's Who' of acting talent that takes in stablemates Bale, Caine, Freeman, and Oldman and mixes it up with Hardy, Hathaway, Cotillard, Gordon-Levitt, Modene, Murphy, Mendelsohn and Conti. A great story set eight years ahead of the last installment The Batman is all but a recluse having gone underground following the events of 'The Dark Knight' in which he takes the fall for Arthur Dent's crimes. Gotham is now safe, and life is good - until über-evil villain Bane (Tom Hardy) arrives on the scene and all manner of criminal mayhem and brutality ensues!

Bane is a military revolutionary and former member of 'The League of Shadows' but has gone rogue, amassed a small army and is intent on bringing Gotham and its rich, wealthy and powerful citizens to its knees . . . including Bruce Wayne. Bane is a gorilla of a man with huge physical and mental strength to combat that of Batman and Hardy seems to inhabit the role with conviction and determination - great casting!

Along the way Bruce Wayne is tricked by Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) - an accomplished cat burglar and femme fatale who crosses paths with both Bruce Wayne and The Batman ultimately turning from foe to friend. Similarly Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) sits on the Board of Wayne Enterprises and convinces Bruce Wayne to come out of near self-imposed exile and continue the works that his father had initiated and restore the company to its former glory . . . and wealth. Starting as a friend she becomes a foe when it is revealed that in her childhood she befriended Bane in a deep well-like prison from which no one had ever escaped, and where Bruce Wayne is now trapped seemingly to die there!

In this final instalment of Nolan's trilogy we are introduced to John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt) a young Police officer with a keen eye and a sense for trouble - much like the younger Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Bruce Wayne himself. After proving himself out on the streets of Gotham in various set-pieces Gordon promoted Blake into the role of Detective to ultimately help in the fight to stop Bane and save Gotham. In the end we come to learn that Blake too was orphaned at a young age and his real name is Robin John Blake, and when Batman and Bruce Wayne are assumed dead in the final chapter, Blake inherits the Batcave.

Christopher Nolan wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan. Christopher also Produced, Directed  and penned the original story with David S. Goyer and made the film for a budget of about US$250M. In its opening worldwide weekend the film grossed US$249M, earning a US gross box office take of US$448M and US$636M from the rest of the world - in total US$1B between friends making it the tenth highest grossing film of all time. It was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects and all up won 42 awards worldwide and garnered another 75 award nominations.

A courageous closing chapter to the Nolan Batman trilogy that just kept on getting better, bigger and bolder with every instalment. Considered storytelling, huge cast, gripping action, and a fitting end to the trilogy that will both surprise and delight. Certainly one of the films of the year for 2012, a must see on the big screen, and a dvd to grace the home movie collection without doubt!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week - Thursday 25th September 2014.

After last weeks dearth of new releases - seven no less - comes another raft of new cinema content during the Aussie school holiday season with five new films to tease you out on a Spring evening into a darkened movie theatre with a bunch of popcorn chewing fizz slurping strangers. Sounds like fun . . . and indeed it will be, with the big screen rendering of a popular 80's TV revenge and retribution action series made famous by a stoic Edward Woodward in the title role back in the day; then we have estranged twins dodging death coincidentally and pondering their life and where/how and why it all went horribly wrong - sounds like a laugh and it might well be! Next up is an Aussie sex-romp charting the bedroom Olympic antics of five couples that is funny, controversial, scandalous and weird and is likely to polarise audiences because of its revealing at times taboo subject matter. Then we have a bungled kidnapping and a ransom refused because of a pending divorce and all the table turning hilarious fallout as a result; and to close out the week a foreign language coming of age story of two young teenage girls set amidst the backdrop of a newly independent state in the early 1990's.

Get out amongst it this week to your local independent or multiplex theatre, and when you've sat through your big screen entertainment, record your thoughts in the Comments section following this article, or a Review, and let me, and my other Reader know what you think! Enjoy the movie!

THE EQUALIZER (Rated MA15+) - 'The Equalizer' TV Series upon which this film is based ran for 88 episodes from mid-1985 through to mid-1989 and starred veteran actor Edward Woodward as Robert McCall - a former covert operations officer turned 'Equalizer' to protect the innocent, downtrodden and needy who are suffering at the hands of low life crims, organised crime, and the unscrupulous underworld of a late 80's New York City.

Fast forward to 2014 and Director Antoine Fuqua has once again teamed up with Denzel Washington to bring this popular 80's TV series to the big screen. Washington is Robert McCall a former black-ops Commando this time around, who having faked his own death is now leading a quite life in Boston. minding his own business, and trying to forget his violent turbulent past. Armed with a unique set of combat skills and a heap of experience he comes to the rescue to young Teri (Chloe Grace-Moretz) who is under the control of Russian gangsters and mobsters, as he can't simply sit-by and let her life go down to the toilet. And so McCall comes out of exile and self-imposed retirement to equalise the odds of the innocent, downtrodden and needy by doing what he does best, and dishing out his own brand of justice, mixed up with just a hint of vengeance! As the 80's show told us - if someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have no where else to turn, then you can call 'The Equalizer'!

THE SKELETON TWINS (Rated M) - twins Milo (Bill Hader) and Maggie (Kristen Wiig) have been estranged from each other for ten years or so, having been very close and almost inseparable as children. Coincidentally they both manage to cheat death on the same day and this together with other family circumstances reunite them once again at the family home in up-State New York - now both in their thirties. Milo is a struggling no-hope actor with little prospects on the horizon and Maggie a secretly unhappy wife who is barley keeping mind and soul together despite a loving husband. Milo seeks to rekindle a long-lost relationship with Rich (Ty Burrell) - a scandal that back in the day caused the rift between brother and sister. Maggie meanwhile fraternises with Aussie SCUBA instructor hunk Billy (Boyd Holbrook) potentially threatening her marriage. As the twins reunite and relive the painful memories of the past whilst confronting the confusion of the present day, their relationship is tested as they seek to make excuses for their past acts and reconcile their previous behaviours. Understanding this though and acknowledging their mistakes may be the only way they can truly move forward and re-establish the close brother and sister bond they once shared.

THE LITTLE DEATH (Rated MA15+) - another Aussie offering this week - this time from first time Director Josh Lawson who also wrote and stars. This is a film of relationships, sex, love, fantasy and fetish and what goes on behind the bedroom door. With the spotlight on the sexual shenanigans of five couples all living in the same street it peers into the often taboo subject of sex and the things people get up to to satisfy their sexual appetite, and the potential ramifications of it. Interwoven in the story is the new neighbour who somehow connects them all while asking us the question why we do what we do, and just how far are we prepared to go to get it for a few brief fleeting moments of sexual satisfaction? Also starring familiar faces including Lachy Hulme, Lisa McCune and Patrick Brammall this original comedy will leave you pondering the nature of its taboo subject matter.

LIFE OF CRIME (Rated MA15+) - based on an Elmore Leonard book this black comedy centres around two petty crims who decide to kidnap the wife of wealthy socialite Detroit property developer Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins) and seek a hefty ransom. In masterminding their get rich quick kidnapping scam to snaffle Mickey Dawson (Jennifer Aniston) and demand $1M for her release, they don't bank on nefarious husband Frank refusing to pay because he doesn't want her back, and besides he has a Mistress on the side and is about to file for divorce anyway! And so our crims need to quickly rethink their scheme and come up with Plan B to turn the tables, bring down the cheating husband, and take him for all they can - this time though aided and abetted by a somewhat annoyed and angry wife! Also starring Mos Def, Isla Fisher, Mark Boone Jnr., and John Hawkes this is Directed by Daniel Schecter.

IN BLOOM (Rated M) - set in Tiblisi in the early 90's, this film tells the coming of age story of two teens girls Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria) with the backdrop of Georgia and their beautiful but increasingly run down city - newly independent from Russia and on the brink of civil unrest with all the uncertainty, fear and dread that this in turn creates. Their lives contrast each other but what goes on at home behind closed family doors has little consequence when compared to the adventure of boys, the big city, a new state of independence and their lives about to spring into bloom. When handsome young lad Lado gets to know Natia and gifts her a pistol with which to protect herself, the ramifications of this on both teenage lives will test the relationship and potentially change their young lives for ever. A multi-award winning film at various international film festivals, and nominated at this years Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film this film is touted as compelling viewing based on the real life childhood experiences of writer and co-Director Nana Ekvtimishvili.

And so there it is - five film offerings to tempt and tease your movie going tastebuds, but not so much for the kids this week! Nonetheless there is still plenty of great content doing the rounds from previous weeks to ensure that all tastes and genres are provided for.

Get amongst it - go see a movie!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BOYHOOD - Saturday 20th September 2014.

'BOYHOOD' which I saw last night is Richard Linklater's twelve year opus to bring to us the evolving story of a fractured family growing up in Texas, and with a focus in particular on the centrepiece of that family, the young son who we meet aged six as he moves from 'Boyhood' to manhood over the next twelve years. This is truly a remarkable story that will resonate with you as you sit glued to every frame watching time pass by before your very eyes, in a way that we have not seen before on the big or small screen, and over such a prolonged period of film making time.

The film opens with six year old Mason (a breakout performance by Ellar Coltrane) doing the thing that all six-year olds do - lounging around, not paying attention at school, hanging out with mates, and day dreaming with not a care in the world. He has loving, albeit separated, parents and a nagging older sister and they live together in the former family home. It is young Mason who we will follow for the next twelve years as he experiences growing up and all the pain; torture; torment; angst; sadness and joy; love and loss; sex, drugs and alcohol; music and movies; the acne and long hair; social media and historical landmarks that pepper our lives every day . . . but seen through the eyes of a growing boy.

We follow him through the trials and tribulations of his family life as a string of successive 'father figures' come and go; as he struggles through school to pay attention and be engaged; through his introduction to alcohol, girls, sex and drugs; the first time he shoots a shotgun; his emerging keen interest in photography and his eventual move away from home to attend College.

The young Ellar Coltrane gives a truly nuanced performance - particularly given that at aged five he had to commit to Director Richard Linklater for twelve years and go the distance from 2001 to 2013 on film. So much could have gone wrong with this in hindsight, but Coltrane inhibits his character of Mason with such conviction and realism, never over dramatising, and keeping him grounded in the moment and his surroundings throughout the duration of the film, and therefore every year when the cast & crew came together to film another chapter in the unfolding lives of the principle players. Undoubtedly a star in the making if Coltrane chooses a career in Hollywood!

Patricia Arquette plays Mom, Olivia, to Mason and her performance too (as with all four of the principle cast) is first class. Starting out as a struggling single parent recently separated and juggling two demanding kids, work at a local school and dreams of making more of her life, she is the rock in the family relationship and the glue that binds it all together. Over the years we see her improve her position by following her dream and becoming a teacher of psychology ultimately, but along the way she marries, divorces, marries again and divorces again and each time you would question her decisions as those relationships implode and her two kids growing up are at the epicentre of it all. On the fringes sits part-time weekend Dad who does the right thing by the children and never interferes with his ex-wife's personal life, but you know is there to help when the brown stuff hits the fan, and by the end of the film you are thinking why didn't Mom just hang in there with Dad?

And so to Dad, Mason Snr., also played with great aplomb by Ethan Hawke who at the outset has darted off to Alaska to shake off his failed marriage, rediscover himself and perhaps grow up a little too.  He is a committed father and never misses a beat when it's weekend access time to spend quality time with his growing boy and girl. It's a joy to watch their interaction as they reconnect with each other, share words of wisdom, and seek out adventures to share - a night at the bowling alley, watching a live baseball game or a camping weekend. Hawke is convincing in an understated way, growing in his fatherhood role as his children grow, accepting responsibility and providing fatherly advice along the way - to his 15 years old daughter about contraception, to his son about girls, his love of The Beatles music, his political stance, or his thoughts on further 'Star Wars' instalments (interesting in itself given that he discusses further episodes with Mason Jnr. around a camp fire long before the announcement in 2013 that Disney had bought the rights and were embarking on Episodes VII, VIII and IX). Mason Snr. is a would be musician, young at heart but accepting that time is marching on and so settles down eventually, marries, has another child and so too finally grows up with all the responsibilities and maturity that comes with middle age - a great restrained subtle performance by Hawke, showcasing once again his huge talent.

The final piece in the family jigsaw is elder sister Samantha (played by Richard Linklater's own daughter Lorelei) who also grows up before our eyes too but is not centre stage like Mason. As an emerging teenage girl we witness the awkwardness, the attitude, the angst, the self consciousness, the braces, dyed hair, fashion sense as she becomes a young woman and eventually moves away to College.

Written and Directed by Richard Linklater, he has delivered a unique film charting four lives over twelve years as two children and two adults grow up, mature, evolve and take increasing responsibility for their lives and those around them. Coming together for a couple of weeks every year for twelve years not only do we see the growth in these people but we also see the touchstones over that time that have impacted our own lives - the Bush administration; 9/11; war in Iraq; the advent of X-Box, Wii, the iPod, the Smartphone; Harry Potter, Star Wars, and the Twilight Saga; the Obama election campaign; the emergence of social media; all underscored by a great soundtrack to the last twelve years.

Running for 165 minutes it is a long film, but your patience will be rewarded by this achievement in movie making - a heart warming uplifting film that will resonate with anyone who has ever grown up, or has young people around them that are; a fly-on-the-wall take on a fictionalised story, and first rate award worthy performances from Coltrane, Arquette and Hawke especially that make this one of the must watch films of 2014.


-Steve, at Odeon Online-