What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 5th January 2017.

The coming of age genre has been around for many decades and still endures to this day, as evidenced by the release this week of 'The Edge of Seventeen' as Previewed below. Often seen as a launchpad for young aspiring often teenage acting talent (think James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Harrison Ford, Matthew Broderick, Jonah Hill, John Cusack, James Spader, Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, Molly Ringwood, Winona Ryder et al), the coming of age film fuelled by love, sex, heartbreak, insecurity, anxiety, violence and all the rites of passage associated with the lurch into adulthood, has found a lasting place in our hearts and minds, and still draws a crowd at the Box Office. I've listed a handful of some of my personal favourites from over the years, that you might like to revisit, and of course there are a whole lot more besides :-
* 'Rebel Without a Cause' (1955) - James Dean
* 'The Graduate' (1967) - Dustin Hoffman
* 'American Graffiti' (1973) - Harrison Ford
* 'Carrie' (1976) - Sissy Spacek
* 'Sixteen Candles' (1984) - Molly Ringwald
* 'The Breakfast Club' (1985) - Emilio Estevez
* 'The Goonies' (1985) - Josh Brolin
* 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1986) - Matthew Broderick
* 'Pretty In Pink' (1986) - James Spader
* 'Stand By Me' (1986) - Keifer Sutherland
* 'Dead Poet's Society' (1989) - Ethan Hawke
* 'Dazed and Confused' (1993) - Matthew McConaughey
* 'American Pie' (1999) - Jason Biggs
* 'Donnie Darko' (2001) - Jake Gyllenhaal
* 'Superbad' (2007) - Jonah Hill
* 'Boyhood' (2014) - Ellar Coltrane
* 'The Hunt for the Wilderpeople' (2016) - Julian Dennison

This week, there are three new release movies to catch at your local independent cinema or multiplex.  Kicking off with a Directorial debut with a coming of age story of a girl ill at ease with her image, her  life, her friends and all the teenage angst we have seen before but dealt with in a more mature, respectful and meaningful way than many similar genre films of this type. We next go to a documentary offering about the power of music and the force this can have in bringing people together across cultural divides, geographical borders and provide hope and inspiration for our future. We then wrap up with a Chinese action comedy featuring a very well known action star in this war time romp about a rag tag band of freedom fighters going up against the might of the Japanese army.

As always when you have sat through any of these, or those others still out on general release and doing the rounds as Reviewed and Previewed previously between these Blog pages, you are hereby cordially invited to share your constructive, relevant and pertinent thoughts and observations by leaving  a Comment below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and meanwhile, enjoy your movie.

'THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN' (Rated M) - Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, this coming of age dramedy story Premiered at the TIFF in mid-September and was released in the US in mid-November. Costing US$9M to make, it has so far taken US$15M at the Box Office and has garnered much critical applause for its sharp script and the performance of its lead Actress, Hailee Steinfeld. It has also picked up four award wins and another thirteen nominations, including a 2017 Golden Globe nod for Hailee Steinfeld.

Life's tough and often unfair, and even tougher if you're a teenage girl and nobody understands you, and you have just one parent because your loving Dad died a few years back and your only true friend in the world has started dating your brother and now you feel all alone in the world with no one to talk to and you think you're socially inept. Oh woe! The teenager in question is just seventeen Nadine Franklin (played by twenty year old Hailee Steinfeld), who lives with mother Mona (Kyra Sedgwick), and older brother Darian (Blake Jenner), who gets it on with Nadine's only friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson), angering Nadine. These events and more, lead Nadine to tell her history teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson) that she is going to kill herself, and through flashback we see the events unfold that bring us to this conversation in the classroom. Despite her feelings of being hard done by, unloved, disliked, awkward and all the usual touchstones of being a teenager, this film deals with them in a mature respectful adult way without relying on all the usual genre cliches, and for this reason this a film and a Director to watch.

'THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS' (Rated M) - The website that accompanies the release of the documentary film states that over the past 16 years, an extraordinary group of musicians has come together to celebrate the universal power of music. Named from the ancient trade route linking Asia, Africa and Europe, The Silk Road Ensemble, an international collective created by acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, exemplifies music’s ability to blur geographical boundaries, blend disparate cultures and inspire hope for both artists and audiences. The film follows an ever-changing lineup of performers drawn from the ensemble’s more than fifty instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways that art has the power to preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution. Blending performance footage, personal interviews and archival film, Director Morgan Neville and Producer Caitrin Rogers focus on the journeys of a small group of Silk Road Ensemble mainstays from across the globe to create an intensely personal chronicle of passion, talent and sacrifice. Through these moving individual stories, the filmmakers paint a vivid portrait of a bold musical experiment and a global search for the ties that bind. This enlightening film about the force of music across cultural divides has been generally well received and has picked up three award wins and three nominations so far, having been released in the US in mid-2016.

'RAILROAD TIGERS' (Rated M) - this Chinese action comedy film stars Jackie Chan in the lead role, is Directed by Ding Sheng, cost US$50M to make and has since made US$76M following its release just before Christmas in its native China and in other territories subsequently. Set in 1941 and Japan is expanding its occupation into neighbouring Southeast Asia using a growing network of railway tracks as important military transportation routes. This is where Ma Yuan (Jackie Chan) comes in as the leader of a rag tag bunch of freedom fighters struggling against the oppressive military regime. Using his extensive knowledge and experience of the railway network Yuan and his crew ambush a train of Japanese soldiers and important food supplies to feed the hungry and starving Chinese. The unlikely heroes come to be known by the locals as The Railroad Tigers, but when the military send in reinforcements to thwart the saboteurs, Yuan must wage his most daring mission yet, by blowing up a strategic bridge that might just cripple the war effort, but it makes the military more determined to dispense with The Railroad Tigers once and for all. Cue all manner of creative stuntwork and improvised weaponry courtesy of Mr. Chan.

Three films to tempt you out to your local multiplex to catch these latest release films, or any of those others still out on general release. Share your thoughts when you have done so, and in the meantime, I'll see you sometime in the week ahead at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-