LOST GIRLS : Wednesday 25th March 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'Lost Girls' which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Wednesday 25th March.

'LOST GIRLS' is Directed by the American documentary filmmaker, Producer and Writer Liz Garbus, whose previous notable works include 1998's 'The Farm : Angola, USA' which was nominated for an Academy Award, 'The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib' which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special, 'Bobby Fischer Against The World' which opened the Sundance Film Festival Premier Documentary Section, 'Killing in the Name' also nominated for an Academy Award, 'Love, Marilyn', and 'What Happened, Miss Simone?' again nominated for an Academy Award. This is Garbus' first full length feature film debut after her previous 30+ documentary outings. This film is based on a true unsolved murder mystery as recounted in the book 'Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery' by Robert Kolker. The film saw its World Premiere showing at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year, and was released in mid-March on Netflix.

The film opens at night, with a girl running and screaming down a deserted dirt road being pursued by a vehicle behind with its headlights glaring. The girl frantically runs into scrubland, never to be seen again. It is May 2010. Fast forward a few days, and mother of the 24 year old girl in question Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan) has been leaving text messages for her daughter Shannan Gilbert, and her sister Sherre (Thomas McKenzie) has been leaving voicemail messages all of which have gone unanswered. Mari visits the local Police Station who reveal to her that Shannan made a 911 call from Oak Beach, Long Island at 4:51am, the alleged night of her disappearance. Playing back a recording of that call it sounded as though Shannan was panicked and running at the same time, although the Police authorities took over an hour to respond to the call arriving at the scene at 6:10am by which time there was no trace of the girl.

Shannan we later find out was a sex worker, and was put into foster care when she was twelve years old by her mother who couldn't cope with her daughters bipolar disease and who as a single mother struggled to make ends meet, as she still does, working two jobs and on occasion has asked her daughter for a handout, while remaining mute about where Shannan gets her money from, although secretly knows the truth. This secret however, rises to the surface once Shannan is officially declared a missing person, leaving Mari to reveal the truth to daughters Sherre and Sarra (Oona Laurence).

While the Police undertake a search for Shannan within the Oak Beach community, they come across the remains of a body, then another, then another. Soon in the fullness of time, ten bodies are recovered in a stretch of wasteland bordering the affluent Oak Beach gated residential community. Mari crosses paths with Police Commissioner Richard Dormer (Gabriel Byrne) who is handed the case, and ploddingly goes through the motions in an attempt to locate her missing daughter and uncover who is behind the murders.

In the meantime, the hardworking, angry and determined Mari has become the surrogate leader of the mothers of the other identified girls whose bodies were discovered in the process of searching for Shannan. They decide to hold a vigil at Oak Beach - all of them feeling ignored and demoralised by the lack of support from the authorities, until one year in, and Mari persuades Dormer to dredge the swamp which was the one place that the Police had not looked because it was practically inaccessible. In the intervening period, a local tip off had alerted Mari to Dr. Peter Hackett (Reed Birney) the local overseer of the Oak Beach gated community who seems to have plenty of circumstantial evidence stacking up against him, but nothing concrete.

Eventually, Shannan's body is discovered in the swamp, but more than twelve months after her reported disappearance, and all because the swamp was deemed too hard to search by the Police. Had it not been for Mari's dogged determination and relentless pressure on the Police to do something, perhaps Shannan's body may never have been uncovered. The Police and public at large didn't seem to take Mari and those other mothers seriously because they're women, perhaps from a less well off background, and because her daughter in particular was involved in an often dangerous profession with a history of being judged and often condemned.

Before the closing credits roll we learn that still eight years on the Long Island serial killer who Police believe was responsible for between ten and sixteen murders over a period of twenty years still to this day remains unsolved. Investigators believed that Shannan died of an accidental drowning that was unrelated to the crimes of the Long Island serial killer, but Gilbert challenged the finding and fought to have the case reopened as a murder investigation. An independent autopsy sought by Gilbert’s family found that Shannan may have been strangled to death. We also learn that on 23rd July 2016 Mari Gilbert was stabbed to death by her daughter Sarra who suffered from schizophrenia. Sarra was charged with second-degree murder and fourth-degree possession of a weapon, convicted of murder, and sentenced to 25 years in jail in August 2017. A truly sad case in every respect!

I have to say that 'Lost Girls' is an attention grabbing, compelling film delivered in all its grey, gloomy overcast atmospherics. A standout performance from Amy Ryan as the fractured yet defiantly stoic and determined mother who by needs must rises to the occasion in which she has been unjustly thrust, also makes this a watchable film that straddles the line between documentary and narrative feature that Director Garbus has so deftly crafted here. In the end its a story without any closure or a happy ending, just a mothers grief at uncovering the dead body of her eldest daughter abandoned in a swamp, and ultimately the mother too died prematurely. It's hardly a rewarding watch, and at times the story plods along without really going anywhere had it not been for Mari's sheer resolve in frustratingly getting the local law enforcement to get up of their butts and take her case seriously, and for her disruption of the Oak Beach local community. This isn't your usual murder mystery procedural whodunnit in which the bad guy goes down and, in fact quite the opposite, as this case still remains very open ended with no convictions, no suspects, no persons of interest and very little evidence save for the corpses of sixteen  unfortunates, and it's this fact that elevates 'Lost Girls' above those others in the genre.

'Lost Girls' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE PLATFORM : Monday 23rd March 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which the first I review as below is 'The Platform', which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Monday 23rd March.

'THE PLATFORM' is a Spanish (over dubbed into English) Sci-Fi horror offering Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September 2019, where it won the People's Choice Award in the Midnight Madness category, has garnered generally positive Press and has collected nine award wins and a further fourteen nominations from across the festivals and awards circuit. It is streaming now on Netflix.

Here Goreng (Ivan Massague) wakes up in a concrete cell with the number 48 etched on the wall. His fellow cellmate, named Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor), explains that they are in a high rise tower prison with two inmates per level. Inmates are able to talk to each other through a large rectangular hole in the centre of every level but there is very little chance of climbing up or down between levels for fear of plummeting down into seemingly infinite void. Food is delivered via a platform which travels from the top level (Level 1) right down to the bottom level (assumed to be Level 250) through that large rectangular hole in the floor/ceiling, and is prepared by a team of gourmet chefs on Level 0. The platform is initially laden with all manner of culinary delights and enough to feed all inmates (if they were to take a reasonable portion), but of course those on the lower levels can only eat what those at the top leave them, and when the food is gone, it's gone. The platform comes to rest on each level for just a few minutes at a time, once a day. The top fifty levels are deemed to be the best off in terms of the food source, and anything below that the pickings are slim to non existent.

Each room is rapidly heated to such a temperature to burn the skin off your bones or cooled to freeze you to the spot if prisoners attempt to hoard food after the platform has left their level. Every month, the prisoners are assigned to a new level by being gassed at night and waking the next day to discover if they risen or fallen through the levels. Each prisoner was also permitted to bring one item in with them to give them some connection to the outside world - Goreng chose a copy of Don Quixote, Trimagasi a self-sharpening knife called the Samurai Plus - the more you use it the sharper it gets. As the month wears on the pair of inmates tell each other why they are in the prison (referred to as The Pit) - Goreng volunteered to spend six months in the Pit to quit smoking and to come out at the back end with a Diploma qualification, and Trimagasi is serving a twelve month sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

As the months progress, Goreng moves from Level 48 to Level 171 where the platform is completely devoid of any food when it arrives. He wakes up gagged and bound to the bed with Trimagasi saying that after the eighth day when Goreng is purged, he will begin to eat him, a little bit at time in order to sustain himself. As Trimagasi is using his Samurai Plus knife to cut flesh from Goreng's leg, Miharu (Alexandra Masangkay) descends from the upper levels on the platform and thwarts the attacker, freeing Goreng who then kills Trimagasi using his own knife. Miharu we learn earlier descends the platform every month in search of her separated young son.

The next month Goreng wakes on Level 33 with a new cellmate, and after that Level 202 with Imoguiri (Antonia San Juan) who ultimately hanged herself so that Goreng could eat her flesh in death rather than in life, in order to sustain himself. The next month he wakes up on Level 6 with Baharat (Emilio Buale Coka). They convince each other to descend on the platform and 'persuade' the other inmates to ration the food so that everyone down through the levels can eat. What follows turns into a blood bath as Goreng and Baharat fend off those unwilling to take rations and try to eat more. Goreng has estimated 250 levels but he is unsure if there are more. By the time they have reached Level 333, the platform has just kept on descending through the levels without stopping when no one is left alive. They get off discovering a little girl cowering under a bed, but then the platform descends further leaving them stranded. The next day, Goreng and the girl jump onto the platform as it descends further down to Level 350 and comes to a final halt in a black cavernous space. Goreng gets off weakened by the injuries he sustained when fending off others during his descent and Baharat died from his injuries, leaving the girl to ascend alone through the levels as a message of defiance to the Chefs on the uppermost level.

'The Platform' is an alternative version of 1997's 'Cube', 2013's 'Snowpiercer' and 2015's 'High Rise' films just set in a super tower prison where the lucky ones in this instance get to chow down on chef prepared meals once a day to their hearts and stomachs content, and those less fortunate get to go hungry, starve to death or die by means most foul. It's a film about the disconnect between the haves and the have nots, and the lengths that humans will go to to survive or simply succumb to their circumstances. Topics covered here also include the effects of starvation, cannibalisation, isolation, madness, extreme violence, friends and enemies and perhaps most pointedly a reflection on todays society - even more present in these uncertain times when the world is gripped by a pandemic. The ending when it comes, is a let down however, and is never really fleshed out to its natural or logical conclusion. For its stark minimalist setting the film is well realised, the performances of the principle cast stands up well enough, the storyline is convincing but we have seen it numerous times before albeit packaged differently, and the closing sequence leaves you feeling short changed.

'The Platform' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 26th March 2020.

Now in its seventeenth year, the London Independent Film Festival ran this year at the Genesis Cinema in London's East End from Friday 13th until Sunday 22nd March. The official website states that 'The London Independent Film Festival (LIFF) is the premier event for first and second-time film-makers, micro-budget and no-budget films in the UK. LIFF offers a fantastic opportunity for indie filmmakers to showcase their achievements, with spaces reserved for first and second time filmmakers and for films that have been overlooked by other events. LIFF presents the best of low-budget filmmaking from around the world, and mixes it up with relevant industry discussions and targeted social networking events. LIFF’s audience is London’s sizeable independent filmmaking community. It’s an indie film festival for indie filmmakers'.

Hosted every spring at the Genesis Cinema – repeatedly voted the best cinema in the UK – the 2020 London Independent Film Festival screened the work of over 100 filmmakers from around the world, showcasing short films and feature length films, guest speakers, networking and future collaboration opportunities.

In terms of feature films, awards are presented in the following categories : Best Low-budget Feature (over £100K), Best Micro-budget Feature (under £100K), Best No-Budget Feature (under £10K), Best UK Feature, Best Documentary, Best Sci-Fi/Horror Feature, Best Female Director Feature, Best LGBT film, Best Feature Screenplay, Best Sci-Fi/Horror Screenplay and Best UK Screenplay. Despite LIFF's best intentions, it seems that the awards were cancelled due to the ever increasing threat of the Coronavirus gripping the UK, and everywhere else around the globe. 

* This years feature films took in the drama 'GOLDEN AGE' Directed by Jenna Suru as the opening night presentation. Set in May 1967, a penniless Franco-American Producer living in Los Angeles returns to Paris, following in his mother’s footsteps to flee the Vietnam War. He meets an ambitious French theatre actress, who acts in small Parisian theatres in front of empty seats. Both desperate to change the world, they decide to embark on an artistic project together, ending up in a small village of St. Tropez in the South of France. It is here tinged with artistic revolution and music, that the experiences they'll share together will soon force them to face up to their choices - just how far are they prepared to go to change this world that doesn’t work for them?

* 'PALINDROME', Directed by Marcus Flemmings, this is a drama film of a young black man Fred as he struggles to find freedom in modern Britain. Mirroring this is a story about a female artist in modern England who is contemplating the true meaning of art. Set against the backdrop of Brexit and it’s impending economic and social uncertainty, this film tackles subjects such as the meaning of current slavery, gentrification, art, love, race, mental health and politics.

* 'REBORN', Directed by Julian Richards, here is a horror offering about a stillborn baby girl brought back to life by an electrical storm and then abducted from hospital by a morgue attendant. On her sixteenth birthday, empowered with the gift to manipulate electricity with her mind, she escapes her captor and sets out to find of her birth mother, leaving a bloody trail of destruction behind her.

* 'A SOUL JOURNEY', Directed by Marco Della Fonte, this documentary charts how every year, for the last 30 years, some of the greatest 'legends' of Soul and R&B music have performed at 'Porretta Soul' in Italy, the most prestigious festival in Europe for this genre of music. Narrating aspects of the intricate and delicate lives of the artists, and in particular, their artistic, human and emotional journeys to perform in such a small village 'lost' in the remote Italian countryside.

* 'YOUR EYES ON ME', Directed by Sergei Alexander, this drama film tells the story of a drag queen named Gloria whose life changes when she meets Kandi, a drag virgin auditioning for her next show. Suddenly the past and the choices Gloria made as a young man become a stark reality.

* 'PHILOPHOBIA', Directed by Guy Davies this drama film is set in the rolling hills of the English countryside, and with just one week of school remaining for Kai, an aspiring writer, and his friends, how they chose to spend this time will cost one of them their life and leave them all changed forever.

* 'KAT AND THE BAND', Directed by E.E. Hegarty, and the closing night film, this comedy centres around the music obsessed, Kat Malone who has big dreams. With bold dedication and a contagious energy, Kat longs to be a professional band manager and courageously sets out to achieve her goal. There’s just one little problem … she’s still at school!

For the full programme, you can visit the official website at : https://www.liff.org 

And so this week then, we have four latest release new movies coming to your local Odeon, kicking off with this most recent live action rendition of a previous animated film from the House of the Mouse of 22 years ago, that tells the story set in ancient China when a young woman masquerades as a man to fight the marauding huns ultimately winning her the respect of her country and her family. We then turn to another big screen adaptation of a famed book first published in 1850 by a renowned English author, telling the story of the formative life and times, inspirations and observations of a wannabe English gentlemen that he eventually turns into his autobiography. Next up is a Spanish foreign language offering set high up in the Colombian mountains where a group of child soldiers hold a western Doctor hostage, but when she makes a bid to escape, that group gradually starts to unravel as the strong ones prey on those weaker. And we conclude the week with a sequel to a 2016 animated feature starring a bunch of colourful troll like dolls with upcombed hair who are out to save the world's different music genres from complete obscurity at the hands of those whose preference is only for rock music. Understanding that many cinemas across the world have been closed down because of the escalating Coronavirus outbreak, these films were originally scheduled for a release in Australia this week, but that is no longer the case. Elsewhere in the world you may find some movie theatres still operating, and so you'll have to check your local guide for release dates.

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 coming week.

'MULAN' (Rated PG) - here this Disney live action remake of their former 1998 animated film of the same name is Directed by New Zealand film maker Niki Caro whose previous Directorial outings include her debut feature 'Whale Rider' in 2002 and then 'North Country', 'A Heavenly Vintage', 'McFarland, USA' and 'The Zookeeper's Wife' more recently in 2017. That animated feature film took US$305M at the worldwide Box Office off the back of a US$90M production budget and collected seventeen award wins (including ten Annie Award wins) plus 21 other nominations including an Oscar nod and two Golden Globe nods. The film is based on the Chinese folklore 'The Ballad of Mulan' which was first transcribed in the sixth century. Plans for a live-action 'Mulan' remake first got underway in 2010, but the project never came to fruition, until March 2015 when a new attempt was announced and Caro was hired to direct two years later. The production budget for this film was US$200M and the film was due for release in the US this week too.

When the Emperor of China (Jet Li) issues a ruling that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Chinese Army to defend the country from the northern Huns, Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei), the eldest daughter of an honoured warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma). She is spirited, determined and quick on her feet. Disguised as a man by the name of Hua Jun, she is tested every step of the way and must harness her innermost strength and embrace her true potential. It is an epic journey spread over many years that will transform her into an honoured warrior and earn her the respect of a grateful nation as well as a proud father. Also starring Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An and Gong Li.

'THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD' (Rated PG) - based on the eighth book by Charles Dickens and first published in 1850, here Director, Co-Producer and Co-Writer for the screen adaptation Armando Iannucci brings us this British and American Co-Produced comedy drama film based on that acclaimed mid-Victorian era novel. Iannucci is the Scottish satirist, Writer, Director, and Radio Producer whose previous feature film credits include 2009's 'In The Loop', and 2017's 'The Death of Stalin' most recently. Born after the death of his father, David Copperfield (Dev Patel), is fortunate to be raised by his loving mother Clara (Morfydd Clark). But when she takes a violent new husband Edward Murdstone (Darren Boyd) who seems to have a particular dislike for young children, David is sent way to London to live with Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi), and so begins his odyssey sampling life's experiences (good and not so good) and inhabiting various abodes over the ensuing years (including an oppressive boarding school) and the country home of his eccentric aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton). However, his written words prove to be his saving grace as he produces hilariously pithy observations of all those he comes across - impressions that will one day constitute his autobiography. Also taking in an ensemble cast that includes Hugh Laurie, Ben Whishaw, Paul Whitehouse, Benedict Wong, Gwendoline Christie, Aneurin Barnard, and Daisy May Cooper. Costing US$16M to make, the film saw its Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was released in the UK in late January, and not in the US until early May, has generated mostly favourable Reviews, has so far taken US$8M at the Box Office and has picked up six award wins and a further eight nominations. I saw this film at an advance screening at Sydney's Open Air Cinema on 29th January, so you can check out my full Review there.

'MONOS' (Rated MA15+) - is a critically acclaimed Spanish language co-production between the US and Colombia that is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Colombian-Ecuadorian Alejandro Landes. The film saw its World Premiere screening at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award, and it was also selected as the official Colombian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. Released in its native Colombia in mid-August before its US release in mid-September 2019, the film has so far grossed US$1.5M off the back of a US$2M budget and has garnered 25 award wins and another 45 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. Set on a remote mountain in Latin America, this film traces a young group of eight guerrillas with names such as Bigfoot (Moises Arias), Rambo, Wolf, Smurf, Dog and Boom-Boom who keep watch over an American hostage, Doctora Sara Watson (Julianne Nicholson). The teenage commandos perform military training games and initiate cultish rituals by day and indulge in youthful hedonism by night, an unconventional family bound together under a shadowy force know only as 'The Organization'. After an ambush drives the squadron into the jungle, both the mission and the intricate bonds between the group begin to disintegrate as order soon descends into chaos and within the group the strong begin to prey on the weak when the hostage tries to escape.

'TROLLS WORLD TOUR' (Rated G) - this American computer animated adventure musical comedy is the sequel to 2016's film 'Trolls', based on the 1959 created multi coloured plastic doll with upcombed hair supposedly resembling a troll. That first film grossed US$3350M at the global Box Office off the back of a budget investment of US$125M and positive critical acclaim. Directed by Walt Dohrn and starring an ensemble voice cast, this film follows on from the events of that first instalment. And so here, Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) discover that there are in fact six different troll tribes scattered over six different lands. Each tribe is also devoted to six different kinds of music - pop, funk, rock, techno, country and classical. When rockers Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) and King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne) set out to destroy the other music to let rock music reign supreme, Poppy and Branch embark on a daring mission to unite the trolls and save the diverse melodies from becoming extinct. Also starring the voice work of James Cordon (hot on the heels of voicing Peter Rabbit, in last weeks release), Anderson Paak, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, Gwen Stefani, Jamie Dornan, Walt Dohrn and Kunal Nayyar, the film is supposedly released Stateside on 10th April.

With four new release films 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-

QUEEN & SLIM : Tuesday 17th March 2020.

'QUEEN & SLIM' which I saw this week is a MA15+ Rated American romantic crime drama offering and is Directed by first time film maker Melina Matsoukas who is an already established American music video, television and commercial Director. Amongst her numerous music video's which she has made since 2006 she has worked with Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Whitney Houston, Robin Thicke and Christina Aguilera. Her TV commercials credits take in such companies as Diesel, Adidas, Lexus, Nike and Stella McCartney. This film saw its World Premiere at the American Film Institute Fest in mid-November 2019 and was released in the US in late-November. It has so far received generally positive reviews from critics, has grossed US$47M off the back of a circa US$18M production budget, and has garnered ten award wins and a further 27 nominations from around the awards circuit.

Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim's (Daniel Kaluuya) first Tinder date at a down-beat Ohio diner takes an unexpected turn when a Policeman pulls them over for a minor traffic violation while Slim is driving Queen home. The Police Officer makes Slim get out of the car, frisks him, and asks him to open the car boot asking if he has any stashed guns, alcohol or drugs therein. Slim retorts with only several boxes of shoes, which the Officer opens up and over turns. Slim asks the Officer if he could hurry up as it's cold. The agitated Officer draws his gun on Slim, and when Queen gets out of the car and tries to record the incident on her mobile phone, the situation quickly escalates, and Queen's leg is grazed by a bullet fired by the Policeman, sending her to the ground. Slim tackles the Officer and a scuffle ensues, resulting in Slim grabbing the officer's gun and shooting him with it in self defence. Slim is a god-fearing family loving kinda guy with no criminal history and straight away wants to call it in, but Queen has other plans for fear of spending the rest of their natural lives behind bars.

And so the pair go on the run, in Slim's white Honda with the registration plate 'TrustGod'. They run out of petrol on a remote highway and are able to flag down a passing pick-up truck for help in getting them to a fuel stop. The kindly driver, Edgar (Benito Martinez) turns out to be local Kentucky Sheriff. Arriving at the petrol station, Sheriff Edgar hears a call out on his radio about the murder of an Officer in Ohio, and a description of Queen and Slim. Holding the Sheriff at gun point, they return to their car, make him get in the boot of the Honda, and drive off in his pick-up truck.

The pair travel onwards to New Orleans to the house of Queen's estranged Uncle Earl (Bokeem Woodbine), a pimp who shacks up with Goddess (Indya Moore) and Naomi (Melanie Halfkenny), for help. Although Earl is reluctant to lend his assistance, Queen convinces him to aid them since she had previously helped him avoid jail time for the accidental killing of her mother. Queen we have subsequently learned is a defence lawyer, and her first case upon qualifying was that of her Uncle Earl. 

Slim proposes that they escape to Cuba, and Earl tells them that when he was serving in Iraq, he saved the life of a Mr. Shepherd who would be able to help them get there from Miami. Queen and Slim plan on staying two nights in New Orleans but their stay is interrupted when a Police Officer calls upon the house late at night, poking around and asking questions. He sees the pick-up truck and asks to look around but Earl fends him off saying he'll need to return with a Warrant. Early the next morning the pair take one of Earl's cars, an envelope with a few thousand dollars in it and head towards Florida, but not before torching the pick-up truck on waste ground on the outskirts of the city. 

As they continue on their drive the couple's car breaks down with steam pouring out from under the bonnet. They take it to a workshop they passed not far back, owned by a black mechanic who says it will cost them $2,500 to repair and will take three days. The pair say they need it done today and the mechanic reluctantly agrees when Slim hands over all the remaining cash they have. Watching over the mechanic, who quickly become agitated and looses his patience, suggests his son, Junior (Jahi Di'Allo Winston), take them for a walk to kill a couple of hours and let him get on with the repair job in peace. Junior states his admiration for them both, and lets them know they have become widely recognisable and a symbol against black oppression.

Queen and Slim arrive at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd (Flea and Chloe Sevigny respectively) in Savannah, but a neighbour recognises them. The Shepherds, over dinner tell them about the bounty of $250K each on their heads. Mrs. Shepherd says they could pay off their mortgage with that kind of money, as she is obviously disapproving of her husbands support towards the pair of outlaws. Mr. Shepherd gives them directions to the next person who will be able to assist them. During dinner, a SWAT team shows up outside and Mr Shepherd hurriedly tells Queen and Slim to hide in a crawlspace under the bed in their room until the coast is clear. Soon after the SWAT team burst through the door and search the house, but find no sign of the couple. 

The next morning, they emerge from the crawlspace, and exit the house to the backyard via the window which is two storeys up. Queens jumps first but dislocates her shoulder when landing awkwardly, followed by Slim who lands and rolls. The couple gain easy entry to a rear garage, and Slim relocates Queen's shoulder, resulting in a muffled cry of pain. This attracts the notice of a young black Officer still stationed outside the front of the house, who goes to investigate. As the couple attempt to flee from the Shepherds' garage in a jump started Mercedes station wagon, the black Officer stumbles upon them, but lets them drive off without alerting his fellow Officers standing guard. The pair drive on to the place where they are to meet their next connection, but being the middle of the night and no one there, they sleep in the car until morning. 

In the morning, they are suddenly woken up by a man (Bertrand E. Boyd II) pointing a shotgun at them through the window. He tells them to follow him to his trailer where he can lead them to a friend with a plane that can get them away to Cuba. After making some calls, and after Slim has stressed the urgency of their departure, he drives them to the airstrip and drops them off hastily where a plane is waiting to take off. 

As the two walk toward the plane thinking they are home free, a convoy of Police patrol cars arrives behind them, and a helicopter circles overhead. Recognising that they are not going anywhere, an Officer on a loud hailer keeps ordering the pair to get on the ground, which they ignore. A female Officer impulsively shoots Queen in the chest, killing her instantly. Devastated, Slim picks up her lifeless body and carries her toward the armed mass of Police Officers. Repeatedly ordering him to halt and get down, Slim ignores their directive leading them to gun him down as well in a hail of bullets. News of the tragic end to the manhunt is widely publicised, with the authorities putting their own spin on the events. The couple's real names - Angela Johnson and Earnest Hines are made public, as hundreds of civilians attend their funeral and commemorative services viewing them as both heroes and martyrs.

'Queen & Slim' is in essence a road movie, but not as you might know it. Sure it's about a couple on the run who hijack a pick-up truck and exchange it for various other vehicles before reaching their final destination, but at the same time it's an evolving love story, a tale of prejudice, anger, resentment, hope, pride, trust, faith and power. The film has a pumping soundtrack obviously coloured by Director Matsoukas's numerous music video works, and a visual aesthetic that shows the southern US in all its downtrodden derelict and at times stunning scenery as the pair travel from Ohio, through Kentucky, onto Louisiana into Florida and all the states in between. The performances by Kaluuya and Turner-Smith are first rate as the one time Tinder dates who weren't even going to go on a second date are thrown together on the lam forging a closeness that ultimately is their undoing, and the supporting cast are equally adept in the limited screen time they are afforded. The moral of the story here is to pick your Tinder dates very wisely as the world of two good people turns bad very quickly and from which there is no return, save for martyrdom and the world knowing your true identities once you're dead . . . and what good is that to ya?

'Queen & Slim' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 19th March 2020.

South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organised jointly that take place annually in mid-March in Austin, Texas, USA. It began in 1987 and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year. The SXSW Film Conference spans five days of conference panels and sessions, and welcomes filmmakers of all levels. The SXSW Film Festival runs for nine days, simultaneously with the SXSW Film Conference, and celebrates raw innovation and emerging talent both behind and in front of the camera. Festival categories include Special Events, Headliners, Narrative Spotlight, Documentary Spotlight, Narrative Competition, Documentary Competition, Visions, Midnighters, 24 Beats Per Second, SXGlobal, Episodic, Festival Favourites, and Short Film Programmes. Scheduled to take place between 13th and 22nd March, this years 34th SXSW was cancelled for the first time in its history on 6th March by the City of Austin because of the 2019/20 international coronavirus outbreak. SXSW organisers said that they were 'devastated' by the cancellation, writing that ''The show must go on' is in our DNA'. They also wrote, 'We are exploring options to reschedule the event and are working to provide a virtual SXSW online experience as soon as possible for 2020 participants'.

A sad but true fact, that in reality makes a lot of sense given the potential size of the audience over the duration of the Festival was likely to top 70,000. One day, they'll make a film about this, no wait, they have that done that already with the likes of 'Outbreak' and 'Safe' both in 1995, and 'Contagion' in 2011 to name but a few.

For more on SXSW, you can visit the official website at : https://www.sxsw.com

Turning attention then back to the latest four new filmic releases coming to an Odeon near you in the week ahead, we launch with a hotly anticipated sequel to a 2018 film in which silence rules the world, and to break it risks death by alien predatory creatures, as the remaining members of one family embark on a perilous journey out into the world from the relative safety of their farmstead. This is then followed up by a historical retelling of the battle fought between two men to bring electric power to the masses as the 19th Century draws to a close. We next have an already highly acclaimed documentary about an area of Los Angeles which contains one of the largest populations of homeless folk in the US, and how one man seeks to unite a group of former felons with a common purpose and give them hope where otherwise there may have been none. And we wrap up the week with a live action CG animated sequel about a bunch of bunny rabbits who venture out into the big wide world and get up to all kinds of mischief before being reunited with their surrogate family and learning a thing or two about themselves.

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 coming week.

'A QUIET PLACE : PART II' (Rated M) - this is the eagerly anticipated American horror sequel to 2018's hugely popular and commercially successful 'A Quite Place' which was Directed Co-Written and starred John Krasinski, and went on to gross US$341M off the back off a US$17M production budget. Nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and two AACTA's amongst its total haul of 33 award wins and a further 110 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit, Paramount Pictures announced just a matter of weeks following the release of the first film that a sequel was planned. Krasinski said he considered it 'as a one-off' but that with the sequel planned, he started considering the larger fictional universe to explore possibilities. Come August of that year and Krasinski was writing the script and in February 2019, he was hired to Direct. He also Co-Produces. By late September production had wrapped, and now in mid-March the film gets its wide release . . . . or so was originally planned. But on Thursday 12th March John Krasinski announced 'One of the things I’m most proud of is that people have said our movie is one you have to see all together. Well due to the ever-changing circumstances of what’s going on in the world around us, now is clearly not the right time to do that. As insanely excited as we are for all of you to see this movie .. I’m gonna wait to release the film till we CAN all see it together!' Paramount Pictures also stated 'We believe in and support the theatrical experience, and we look forward to bringing this film to audiences this year once we have a better understanding of the impact of this pandemic on the global theatrical marketplace.' Watch this space for updates once a new release date is locked in.

Following the deadly events at home in which husband and father Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) died saving his children from the creature, the remaining Abbott family of Evelyn (Emily Blunt and real life wife of Krasinski), daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and son Marcus (Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture out in to the unknown, they come to realise very quickly that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path. Also starring Cillian Murphy, Djimon Hounsou, and John Krasinski, in newly filmed flashbacks.

'THE CURRENT WAR' (Rated M) - is an American historical drama film Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon in only his third film making outing after 2014's 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown' and 2015's 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl' although he has acted as Second Unit Director on a number of well known films over the years including 'Lucky Numbers', '21 Grams', 'Babel', 'State of Play', 'Julie & Julia' and 'Argo'. This film saw its World Premier showing at TIFF back in September 2017 and was originally slated for release by The Weinstein Company in December 2017, and then rescheduled for late November 2017. It was pulled from release following the sexual abuse allegations that arose against Harvey Weinstein, the then co-head of the company, and the rest regarding Mr. Weinstein is, a they say, history. After the Weinstein Company was declared bankrupt, and its assets purchased by  Lantern Entertainment, a revised date for release was announced. It was released in late July 2019 in the UK and in late October 2019 in the US, has so far grossed US$12M from its US$30M production budget and has garnered mixed or average Reviews. And so here Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) two of the greatest inventors of the industrial age, engage in a battle of technology and ideas that will determine whose electrical system will power the new century. Backed by J.P. Morgan (Matthew Macfadyen), Edison dazzles the world by illuminating Manhattan. But Westinghouse, aided by Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), sees fatal flaws in Edison's Direct Current design. Westinghouse and Tesla bet everything on the risky and dangerous Alternating Current. Also starring Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston and Tuppence Middleton.

'SKID ROW MARATHON' (Rated CTC) - initially released in mid-2017 in the US on the film festival circuit, this inspiring, feel good and heart warming Documentary film is Written and Directed by Mark Hayes. The main figure in this Documentary is Judge Craig Mitchell, who early on in life had designs on becoming a priest, but decided against that and taught at a high school in South Central Los Angeles for seventeen years before deciding to go to law school. He became a Los Angeles Prosecutor in 1994, and then a Judge in 2005. He has issued many jail sentences from the bench, some of them for quite lengthy periods of time. Judge Mitchell's life changed however, when a prisoner recently released whom he had previously sentenced invited him to visit the Midnight Mission in Skid Row in Downtown LA. Mitchell, who has a lifelong passion for running, came up with the idea of starting the Midnight Mission Runners Club. The doc, shot over several years, profiles several individuals whose lives were changed as a result of their participation, and there attendance at several international marathons. This film offers plenty of opportunity for these running club members to tell their stories, and for Judge Mitchell to describe his motivations, which is all the more surprising given that he suffers from a serious spinal condition that led his doctors to advise him never to run again. The film has won 25 awards (every one it was nominated for), went on release in the UK in May 2018, and only now gets a very limited release in Australia.

'PETER RABBIT 2 : THE RUNAWAY' (Rated G) - this computer animated and live action comedy sequel to 2018's successful 'Peter Rabbit' which grossed US$351M off the back of a US$50M budget investment, is once again Directed, Co-Produced, and Co-Written for the screen by Will Gluck, and is based on the beloved characters created by Beatrix Potter at the turn of the twentieth century. Here live action characters Bea (Rose Byrne), Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson) and Percy McGregor (David Oyelowo) and the rabbits have created a makeshift family, but despite his best efforts, Peter Rabbit (voiced by James Cordon) can’t seem to shake off his mischievous reputation. Adventuring beyond the garden, Peter discovers a world where his mischief is appreciated, but when his family risks everything searching for him, Peter must figure out what kind of bunny he really wants to be. Also starring the voice talents of Margot Robbie as Flopsy, Elizabeth Debicki as Mopsy, Colin Moody as Benjamin, Lennie James, Sia, Sam Neill, Ewen Leslie and Damon Herriman. The film is released in the US on 3rd April. Like 'A Quiet Place : Part II' above, the release of 'Peter Rabbit 2 : The Runaway' has now been pushed back due to the global impact of the Coronavirus, to an August 7th US release. Again, watch this space for future updates.

With four new release films 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-

DARK WATERS : Tuesday 10th March 2020

'DARK WATERS' is a M Rated American legal thriller film which I saw earlier this week, and is Directed by Todd Haynes whose previous Directorial outings take in 'Velvet Goldmine', 'Far from Heaven', 'I'm Not There', 'Carol' and 'Wonderstruck' most recently. It is based on the 2016 article 'The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare' by Nathaniel Rich, published in The New York Times Magazine. Robert Bilott, the principal character in the film portrayed by Mark Ruffalo (who also Co-Produces here), also wrote a memoir in 2019 titled 'Exposure : poisoned water, corporate greed and one lawyers twenty year battle against DuPont'. The film had a wide US release in early December, has garnered generally positive Reviews and has so far grossed US$17M.

Inspired by a shocking true story, corporate environmental defence lawyer Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) has just made partner at his prestigious Cincinnati legal practice in no small part due to his work defending big chemical companies. However, one day while in a Board Meeting, he is interrupted by Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), who presents him with a box of video tapes and urges him to watch the evidence of the slow painful death of his cows and the ruination of his fields on his Parkersburg, West Virginia farm due, he firmly believes, to toxic run off from landfill by the DuPont chemical plant nearby over the course of the last twenty or thirty years. Tennant knows Bilott's grandmother, hence the connection.

Bilott pays a visit to the Tennants' farm, where he learns that 190 cattle have died with unusual medical conditions such as tumours, bloated organs and blackened teeth. Bilott consults with DuPont attorney Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber) who advises him that he has no knowledge of this case but will help out in any way he can. Bilott files a small law suit so he can access data through legal discovery of the chemicals being dumped on the site. When he finds nothing useful in the Environmental Protection Agency report, he realises the chemicals may not even be regulated by the EPA.

At the 1999 Ohio State chemical industry event dinner, Bilott confronts Phil leading to an embarrassingly angry exchange that is overheard by everyone in attendance. Soon afterwards DuPont releases hundreds of boxes of historical records and files to Bilott's office, hoping to bury the evidence, and completely overwhelm the lawyer. Sifting painstakingly through the files Bilott finds numerous references to 'PFOA', a chemical that is not referenced in any medical textbook. In consultation with an expert chemical engineer he learns that PFOA is perfluorooctanoic acid, used to manufacture Teflon, and used in American homes for thirty years or so now on nonstick fry pans, carpet underlay, rain coats and all manner of other common household products. It's even in the drinking water. Bilott's research reveals that DuPont generate $1B a year in profit from Teflon coated products alone, so why would they risk that sort of annual pay day for the cost to human health and well-being??

In the middle of the night, Bilott's pregnant wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) finds him tearing the carpet off the floors and rifling through their kitchen pots and pans. Sarah is at her wits end with her husband's all consuming work on this case and calls him crazy. After calming Sarah down, he urges her to sit at the kitchen table and hear him out, while he recounts in detail what he has uncovered about DuPont. DuPont has been running tests on the effect of PFOA for decades, finding that it causes various forms of cancer and birth defects, but did not make the findings public. They dumped thousands of gallons of toxic sludge upriver from Tennant's farm and buried hundreds of oil sized drums of the stuff into landfill. PFOA and other such similar compounds are forever chemicals that do not leave the blood stream and gradually accumulate.

As the years pass, Tennant is shunned by the local community for suing their biggest employer, they are spied upon by helicopter, and he and his wife come to learn that they both have cancer - hardly surprisingly! Bilott encourages him to accept DuPont's settlement, but Tennant refuses, wanting justice and prison sentences. Bilott sends the DuPont evidence to the EPA and Department of Justice, among others. The EPA fines DuPont $16.5 million. However, Bilott is not satisfied. He realises that the residents of Parkersburg will suffer the effects of PFOA for the rest of their lives. He seeks medical monitoring for all residents of Parkersburg in one large class-action lawsuit, for which he engages the services of expert class-action lawyer Harry Deitzler (Bill Pullman). DuPont meanwhile sends a letter to every resident of Parkersburg notifying them of the presence of PFOA, thus starting the statute of limitations and giving any further action only a month to commence.

As PFOA is not regulated, Bilott's team argues that DuPont is liable, as the amount present in the water is greater than one part per billion deemed safe by the company's own internal documented protocols. Later in a court hearing, Bilott and Deitzler are blindsided by DuPont who now claim that their much later study found that 150 parts per billion is safe. The locals protest and the story becomes national news and makes international headlines. DuPont agrees to settle for $70 million. As DuPont is only required to carry out medical monitoring if scientists are able to prove that PFOA causes the ailments, they are prepared to hedge their bets and so an independent scientific review is set up. To get data for it, DuPont tells the locals they can get their settlement money after donating blood. Nearly 70,000 people donate to the study, each being paid $400 for their time and blood sample.

Seven years pass with no result from the study. Tennant dies, and following several pay cuts, his obsession with this case straining his marriage, and when Bilott's boss at the law firm Tom Terp (Tim Robbins) tells him he needs to take another pay cut, Bilott collapses, shaking violently down his right side. In the hospital the doctor reports to Sarah and Tom that he has suffered a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack - often called a mini-stroke, and brought on by a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain), caused by stress, anxiety and pressure. Sarah tells Tom to stop making her husband feel like a failure, since he is doing something for people who need help.

Eventually after seven or so years, one evening while back in his office, the phone rings. It is a representative of The Scientific Review Panel who apologises for it taking so many years to come back to him with their findings, but with almost 70,000 cases to analyse it was the biggest study of its kind ever. She tells him that their research has concluded that there is a probable link between PFOA and multiple cancers, other diseases and birth defects including kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia and ulcerative colitis. At a celebration dinner with his family, Bilott is informed that DuPont is reneging and backtracking on their entire agreement, because that's what big multi-national companies do whom governments are beholden to. And so, Bilott decides to take each defendant's case to DuPont, one at a time starting in 2015. He wins the first three multimillion-dollar settlements against DuPont, and DuPont settles the class action for $671 million on behalf of some 3,500 other similar cases.

Whilst the movie lingers along almost to the point of monotony, there is still much to like here. Mark Ruffalo is well cast as the mild mannered lawyer going up against the monolithic corporate giant that is more than happy to trade human life and long term suffering for its staggering profits over decades, and then throw just about every road block in the path to discredit that lawyer and the mounting number of sufferers. This is a deftly made film that doesn't seem to steer too far from the truth for dramatic effect, instead trading excitement for efficiency and effectiveness in the storytelling. And it's a story that needs to be told if for no other reason than to highlight corporate America's wrong doing towards it's less well off and often downtrodden citizens laid bare for all the world to see - finally! As for the remaining cast, Anne Hathaway is wasted as the stay at home mum and housewife who barley contributes anything to the storyline, neither really does Bill Pullman as the lawyer headlining the class action, Tim Robbins has his moment in the sun when he delivers a rousing speech to his gathered Board members as to exactly why his company should go after DuPont, and Bill Camp slurs his dialogue so much that it's difficult at times to decipher what he's saying! Despite these flaws, this is still compelling viewing and a powerful message that is hammered home in the final frames as PFOA statistics are etched across the screen - forever chemicals being present in 99% of all humans! Scary stuff, and well worth the price of your movie ticket.

'Dark Waters' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-