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-