NIGHTMARE ALLEY : Tuesday 25th January 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'NIGHTMARE ALLEY' this week, which is an American neo-noir psychological thriller film Directed, Co-Written for the screen and Co-Produced by Guillermo del Toro whose previous film making credits take in 'Hell Boy', 'Pacific Rim', 'Crimson Peak' and the Academy Award winning 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'The Shape of Water'. This film is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, and is the second feature film adaptation following the 1947 film starring Tyrone Power. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews and has recovered US$15M in Box Office receipts from its US$60M production budget so far, having been released Stateside in mid-December last year. It has also so far won fourteen awards and been nominated a further seventy-seven times (of which some of those nominations are still awaiting an outcome) from around the awards circuit. 

The film opens up in 1939, and we see Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper, who also Co-Produces here) dragging a bundled up body across the floor of a ramshackle dwelling and dumping that body under the floorboards. He then douses the body and the surrounding room with petrol, strikes a match, and walks out of the rural house perched on a hill as it becomes engulfed in flames. He gets on bus, and sleeps. When he wakes its nighttime and the bus has reached the end of the line. He gets out and walks toward a travelling carnival, ultimately securing a job as an employee (a carny) on that travelling carnival. When the carnivals resident 'geek' becomes ill, the owner Clem Hoately (Willem Dafoe) has Carlisle help him drop off the body at a nearby inner-city Church, on the promise of a steak and eggs dinner. Over dinner, Clem explains that he finds alcoholics or drug addicts, who are often men with a troublesome history, and coaxes them in with promises of a temporary job, somewhere to sleep and regular meals, but gives them alcohol that contains a few drops of opium tincture. He uses their gradual dependence to physically and mentally abuse them until they sink into madness and depravity, thus creating a geek for his carnival. Later that night Clem shows Carlisle where he stores the moonshine he brews to control the other carnies, warning him not to mistake it for the wood alcohol for pickling medical specimens he stores in jars nearby, for that stuff will easily kill a man.

After a lot of fetching and carrying, erecting and dismantling the big carnival tents and sideshows, often in the pouring rain, Carlisle lands a job with clairvoyant act Madame Zeena (Toni Collette) and her alcoholic husband Pete (David Strathairn). Zeena and Pete use an ingenious coded language system, devised by Pete, to make it seem that she has extraordinary mental powers, which Pete begins teaching to Carlisle. Pete and Zeena warn him not to use these skills to continue leading patrons on when it comes to the dead, which they refer to as a 'spook show'. They always tell their customers after the show that it is a deception for fear of people getting hurt. Meanwhile, as Carlisle becomes more and more familiar with their act, and he grows in confidence, he is attracted to fellow performer Molly (Rooney Mara) and approaches her with an idea for a two-person act away from the carnival, using his new found mentalist abilities. 

One night, after Pete asks Carlisle to secure him a bottle of Clem's moonshine, he gives Pete the wrong bottle (possible accidentally) and the old man dies the next morning in Zeena's arms from consuming wood alcohol. In the aftermath, Carlisle swears his love to Molly and reiterates his plan. She accepts, and they leave the carnival behind. Two years later, Carlisle has successfully reinvented himself as 'The Great Stanton', a mentalist act for New York's wealthy ruling class, together with Molly as his assistant, using Zeena and Pete's tried and tested techniques. During a performance, their act is interrupted by psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), who attempts to expose their system of code. Stan's line of questioning allows him to gain the upper hand over Ritter, keeping their act safe while publicly humiliating her. He is later approached by the wealthy Judge Kimball (Peter MacNeill), who engaged Ritter to test Carlisle. He is now convinced of Carlisle's abilities and offers to pay him handsomely to allow him and his wife Felicia (Mary Steenburgen) to communicate with their dead son who died in Nomansland during WWII at the age of 23. Despite Molly's objections to the unwritten 'spook show' ruling, Carlisle agrees.

Ritter invites Carlisle to her office. She knows full well that he is a con man, but is nevertheless intrigued by his skills of mental manipulation. Through her recorded sessions with her clients, she has accumulated a wealth of potentially sensitive information about various members of New York's movers and shakers and the rich and famous. Sharing a connection, she and Carlisle begin an affair, and they conspire together to manipulate Kimball, with Ritter secretly providing private and sensitive information to fuel his pretence. She does this on the condition that she can start therapy sessions with Carlisle, based on complete honesty, who reveals his guilt over Pete's death, and his hatred of his alcoholic father, who he killed in their home before joining the carnival. 

Kimball introduces Carlisle to the powerful and very private Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins), whose lover, Dory, died of a forced abortion. Despite warnings from Ritter that Grindle is dangerous, Carlisle begins to scam Grindle and starts to drink, having told her previously that he 'never' touches the stuff!. Ritter feeds information to Carlisle, which he supplements by doing his own clandestine investigations, to use against Grindle as revenge for him previously attacking her. She shows Carlisle a scar down her chest and abdomen she received from Grindle. Molly becomes increasingly uncomfortable, and upon learning of the affair with Ritter, leaves Carlisle. He begs her to stay, but she refuses, only agreeing to help him one last time. 

She poses as Dory for Carlisle's ultimate act: manifesting herself as Dory from the other side for Grindle so that he can ask for her forgiveness. However, he loses control of Grindle, who reveals himself to be a violent abuser of many women due to his guilt for Dory. He then clutches hold of Molly wrist before she can exit the escalating out of control scene and realises that his vision of Dory is a fake. Unknown to Carlisle, Grindle's head of personal security, Anderson (Holt McCallany), hears a radio broadcast announcing that Judge Kimball and his wife have been found dead in an apparent murder-suicide, because of Carlisle's promises to Felicia that they would be reunited with their dead son after their own deaths. She had shot dead her husband and then turned the gun on herself. Knowing that Carlisle was recommended to Grindle by the Judge, he goes to check on what was going down between the two.

Upon coming to the realisation that 'Dory' is fake, Grindle becomes enraged and promises to ruin Carlisle. A tussle breaks out between the two men and Carlisle beats him to death with repeated blows to the face, then kills Anderson during their escape by running over him, twice, in their car. As he begins to smash up their car to create the impression that it was stolen, Molly leaves Carlisle for good. Carlisle goes to Ritter for help but discovers she has been scamming him all along, revealing that she wanted revenge for what happened during their initial meeting. She speaks of her disappointment in realising that he was nothing more than a base money-driven petty criminal. She calls the Police and threatens to use her recordings of their sessions as evidence that he is mentally disturbed should he try to implicate her. Ritter shoots Carlisle in the ear, and he tries to strangle Ritter using the telephone cable with the line to the Police still open but as the Police arrive, he flees.

Wanted, injured, with no money, nowhere to go and only the clothes on his back, Carlisle jumps a train and hides behind a wall of chicken coups, as the Police search the carriages but find no evidence of him. He wanders around for years as an aimless alcoholic tramp. At his limit, he tries to get a job as a mentalist at another carnival. The owner (Tim Blake Nelson) turns him away but offers him a drink and a 'temporary' job as the new geek at the last minute, using the same patter that Clem recounted to him all those years previously. Carlisle accepts, laughing out, 'I was born for it'. Seemingly aware of his fate, his laughs turn to tears.

In 'Nightmare Alley' Director Guillermo del Toro has here hung up his all too familiar horror fantasy tropes and traded these in for a psychological melodramatic offering that is bathed beautifully in the colours and images of the era in which the film is set with the emphasis on meticulous detail, whilst still retaining the filmmaking DNA that del Toro is so renowned for. Cooper here shines in his role as the fractured tormented soul with regrets about his past 'indiscretions' but willing to brush these under the carpet for his share of the limelight and all the trappings of his success only for it to all come crumbling down around him that ultimately brings him full circle. And the other A-listers in supporting roles including Blanchett's femme fatale, Collette, Dafoe, Mara, Strathairn and Jenkins all give top notch performances that lend an authenticity to the early 1940's setting, some more menacingly than others. This is a film of life on the road as a travelling carny, of dark and stormy nights, of misdirection and deception, of regret and redemption and of murder most foul all wrapped up in a morality tale that transcends the ages. My only gripe is that of the 150 minute running time, del Toro could easily have shaved twenty-minutes off without sacrificing the story or his undeniable artistic integrity. 

'Nightmare Alley' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SPENCER : Monday 24th January 2022

I saw the M Rated 'SPENCER' at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, in Sydney earlier this week. This work of historical fiction is a psychological drama film Directed and Co-Produced by Pablo Larrain, whose prior film making credits include his 2006 debut 'Fuga' and then 'No' in 2012, 'Neruda' in 2016 and the critically acclaimed 'Jackie' in 2016 also, with 'Ema' in 2019. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year before its release in the US and UK in early November. Having generated largely positive Critical Reviews, 'Spencer' has so far recovered US$16M from its US$18M budget outlay, and has picked up thirty-four awards and a further 106 nominations (many of which are still pending an outcome) from around the awards and festival circuit. 

Set during the Christmas holiday 1991 with the royal family all gathering at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England. Among the invited guests are Diana, Princess of Wales (Kristen Stewart), whose ten year old marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) has reached the point of no return because of his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles (Emma Darwall-Smith). As the staff of the Sandringham Estate prepare for the imminent arrival of the royal family and their entourage, led by the very capable Major Alistair Gregory (Timothy Spall), Diana drives around the Norfolk countryside in a haze. Being on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she avoids driving into the grounds of the Estate until she meets Royal Head Chef Darren McGrady (Sean Harris) claiming that she got lost en route. 

Diana duly arrives to a less than warm greeting on Christmas Eve. Her sons William (Jack Nielen) and Harry (Freddie Spry) are excited to see her, but she does not attempt to mix with the royal family, who for the most part ignore her. Diana's only friend at the Estate is Royal Dresser Maggie (Sally Hawkins), who encourages her to combat the royal family and fulfil the obligations expected of her. Diana finds a book on Anne Boleyn in her designated bedroom. She begins to have dreams about Boleyn, eventually coming to believe that Boleyn's ghost (Amy Manson) is haunting her in her capacity as a fellow betrayed and abandoned royal wife. Diana tries to visit her now abandoned and boarded up childhood home of Park House, which neighbours the Sandringham Estate, but is stopped by the royal security, who initially mistake her for an intruder.

On Christmas morning, Diana joins the service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, where she observes Camilla among the attendees and is photographed by hundreds of gathered paparazzi. She later has a stilted conversation with Charles, who rejects her concern over William and Harry's joining in a pheasant shoot the next day. Charles secretly arranges for Maggie to be sent back to London and spreads rumours that she had planted the Boleyn book in Diana's room and made critical comments about her mental health, to which McGrady denies that she had done so when questioned by Diana. 

Major Gregory attempts to encourage Diana to observe the pressures of royal life by reminding her that the soldiers of the British Army die attempting to protect the interests of the Crown, and therefore her also. Diana responds by stating that she never asked anyone to die for her. After imagining wounding herself with a pair of wire cutters given to her by McGrady, Diana avoids the formal Christmas Day dinner, instead running to her childhood home and gaining access to it with the wire cutters. Memories of her happier childhood overtake her, and she dances from room to room while imagining her younger selves. She considers committing suicide by throwing herself down a flight of stairs, but the hallucination of Boleyn prevents her from doing so. 

On Boxing Day morning, Diana awakens in her room to find that Maggie had been called back from London. The pair drive on to a nearby deserted beach and walk along the sand where Diana talks about her mental and marital challenges. Maggie responds by confessing that she is in love with Diana. After leaving the beach, Diana rushes to the pheasant shoot and walks out in front of the crowd of royal shooters, imitating the movements of the birds. She tells Charles that she is leaving the royal entourage and taking William and Harry to London, an arrangement to which Charles reluctantly agrees. 

Diana bids farewell to Maggie and McGrady and Major Gregory returns the Boleyn book to the library. As they drive away, in the distance, a scarecrow that Diana had created when she was younger is seen, now dressed in clothes from her early adulthood. After stopping en route for some fast food, Diana drives to London, where she begins the process of raising her children independently. She looks out over the River Thames in the shadow of Tower Bridge as the boys chow down on a bucket of KFC, uncertain of her future but no longer burdened by memory or the responsibilities of being a royal.

I have to say that I came away from 'Spencer' feeling a little nonplussed. I neither loved it, nor did I hate it. There is no doubt that Kristen Stewart nails her depiction of Princess Diana to a tee from her vocal inflections, her ticks and foibles, her mannerisms and the way in which she would tilt her head - an Oscar contender here for sure for Best Actress I would think. And Timothy Spall also gives a strong, stoic, stiff upper lip performance as the Queen's Equerry, as does Sally Hawkins as Diana's dresser in the all too brief screen time she enjoys. But for me the film is all too repetitive with Head Chef Darren telling us what every meal over the three days comprises of, from sandwiches on arrival on Christmas Eve to the lavish picnic in the grounds of Sandringham during the pheasant shoot on Boxing Day and every mealtime in between; to Diana chundering into the toilet bowl after every meal she consumes; to what Diana had to wear to every meal and to every occasion throughout her three day stay; and that she is being portrayed as some spoiled brat of a woman who only want's her way in life and bursts into tears when she doesn't get it, which I'm not entirely sure rang true of the Princess. And as for the soundtrack, the first half is so off kilter with all its clanking cello's, violins and oboe's that it really grated on me, before the second half which moves into more classical territory which I guess is fine, but I would have thought that a more modern soundtrack would be in keeping with the depiction of a more modern Princess, despite her anxiety over her circumstances. Diana Spencer was a Princess who just wanted the fairy tale, and instead she got the nightmare!

'Spencer' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 27th January 2022

The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) announced its thirteenth awards winners on 17th January. Originally established in 2003, the AAFCA is the premiere body of Black film critics in the world, actively reviewing film and television, with a particular emphasis on entertainment that includes the Black experience and storytellers from the African Diaspora. The organisation’s primary focus is to cultivate understanding, appreciation and advancement of the contributions of African descended talent to cinematic and television culture – from the artistic and technical legends of the past to the still unimagined breakthroughs of future generations. AAFCA members are a geographically diverse cross-section of journalists, covering all genres of the cinematic arts, while representing multiple mediums – including print, TV, radio broadcast and online. Collectively, they reach a worldwide audience in excess of 100 million.

Given below is the list of winners and grinners as announced last week :-

* Best Picture awarded to 'The Harder They Fall'

* Best Director awarded to Jeymes Samuel for 'The Harder They Fall'

* Best Screenplay awarded to Adam McKay for 'Don’t Look Up'

* Best Actor awarded to Will Smith for 'King Richard'

* Best Actress awarded to Jennifer Hudson for 'Respect'

* Best Supporting Actor awarded to Corey Hawkins for 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'

* Best Supporting Actress awarded to Aunjanue Ellis for 'King Richard'

* Breakout Actor awarded to Saniyya Sidney for 'King Richard'

* Best Ensemble awarded to 'The Harder They Fall'

* Emerging Director awarded to Reinaldo Marcus Green for 'King Richard'

* Best Music awarded to Jeymes Samuel, Kid Cudi, Jay-Z for 'The Harder They Fall' 

* Best Documentary awarded to 'Summer of Soul (. . . Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)'

* Best Independent Feature awarded to 'Who We Are'.

* Top 10 Films of the Year : 'The Harder They Fall', 'King Richard', 'Respect', 'The Tragedy of Macbeth', 'Passing', 'Belfast', 'Who We Are', 'House of Gucci', 'The Power of the Dog' and 'West Side Story'.

For the full details of this awards, the film and TV awards ceremonies and a whole lot more besides, you can go to the official website at : https://www.aafca.com/

Coming then to an Odeon near you, we begin with a biopic that takes an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of a televangelist during the 1970's who built a massively successful religious network in 1974 and a theme park in 1978 before it all came crashing down in 1989. Next up we have an acclaimed Spanish offering about two mothers who give birth on the same day and the subsequent bond that is forged between them. This is followed up with a RomCom about a pair of co-workers at each other's necks for the same position, who find their professional rivalry further complicated by a different kind of passion in this workplace; and we close out the week with the story of a woman who after reluctantly agreeing to move in to a senior's home, encounters a clique of mean-spirited women and an amorous widower.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE' (Rated M) - is an American biographical drama film Directed by Michael Showalter whose prior screen Directing credits include his debut 'The Baxter' in 2005 in which he also starred along with Elizabeth Banks, Peter Dinklage and Paul Rudd, then 'Hello, My Name Is Doris' in 2015 with Sally Field, 'The Big Sick' in 2017 with Kumail Nanjiani and Holly Hunter and 'The Lovebirds' in 2020 with Kumail Nanjiani again. All up Showalter has twenty Directing credits to his name, plus twenty-four as Producer, twenty-eight as Writer and fifty-three as Actor. This film is based on the 2000 documentary film of the same name Directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato and had its World Premier showing at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of last year. It was released in the US later that same month, having garnered mixed Reviews from Critics and taken so far just US$2.5M at the Box Office. 

Set in the 1970's, Tammy Faye Bakker (Jessica Chastain, who also Co-Produces here) and her husband Jim (Andrew Garfield), rise from humble beginnings to create the world's largest religious broadcasting network and theme park. Tammy Faye becomes legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, financial improprieties, scheming rivals and a scandal soon threaten to topple their carefully constructed empire. Also starring Cherry Jones and Vincent D'Onofrio.

'PARALLEL MOTHERS' (Rated M) - this Spanish drama film is Written and Directed by Pedro Almodovar whose filmography includes 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' in 1988, 'Talk To Her' in 2002, 'Volver' in 2006, 'Broken Embraces' in 2009, 'The Skin I Live In' in 2011, 'Julieta' in 2016 and 'Pain and Glory' in 2019. Here, once again he works with frequent collaborator Penelope Cruz, as one of two single women who meet in a hospital room where they are both going to give birth. Janis (Cruz) is middle aged and does not regret it, while Ana (Milena Smit) is adolescent and scared. The two women form a strong bond with one another as they both confront motherhood. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year where Penelope Cruz was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and where the film received a nine minute standing ovation, went on release in its native Spain in early October, and the US on Christmas Eve, has so far grossed US$12M and has garnered universal critical acclaim.

'THE HATING GAME' (Rated M) - is an American RomCom Directed by Peter Hutchings based on the novel of the same name by Sally Thorne. This is Hutchings fourth film making offering following his debut in 2012 with 'Rhymes with Banana', then 'The Outcasts' in 2017, followed by 'Then Came You' in 2018. Here then, resolving to achieve professional success without compromising her ethics, Lucy Hutton (Lucy Hale) embarks on a ruthless game of one-upmanship against cold and efficient nemesis Joshua Templeman (Austin Stowell), a rivalry that is complicated by her growing attraction to him. The film was released Stateside in early December last year, has so far grossed just US$295K, but has garnered generally positive critical Reviews. 

'QUEEN BEES' (Rated PG) - this American romantic comedy offering is Directed by Michael Lembeck who has sixty-eight TV and movie Directing credits to his name and sixty as an Actor. While her house undergoes repairs for a kitchen fire that will take a month to fix, fiercely independent senior Helen Wilson (Ellen Burstyn) temporarily moves into a nearby retirement community, where she encounters lusty widows, cutthroat bridge tournaments and a hotbed of bullying 'mean girls', but a budding relationship with a new resident Dan Simpson (James Caan) makes life more tolerable, until she learns of Dan's secret. Also starring Ann-Margaret, Christopher Lloyd and Elizabeth Mitchell. The film was released Stateside in mid-June last year, has so far grossed US$2M and has generated mostly mixed or average Reviews.

With four new release movie offerings 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 at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 20th January 2022.

The honourees of this years National Board of Review Awards were due to be held at a special gala event on Tuesday evening 11th January, but that event was postponed due to the ongoing ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever tightening grip that the Omicron variant seems to have on our world. That said, the winners of the 93rd National Board of Review Awards honouring the best in film from 2021, were announced on 2nd December 2021, and in case you missed it, those proud recipients of an award are as given below :-

* Best Film - awarded to 'Licorice Pizza'.

* Best Director  - awarded to Paul Thomas Anderson for 'Licorice Pizza'.

* Best Actor - awarded to Will Smith for 'King Richard'.

* Best Actress - awarded to Rachel Zeglar for 'West Side Story'.

* Best Supporting Actor - awarded to Ciaran Hinds for 'Belfast'.

* Best Supporting Actress - awarded to Aunjanue Ellis for 'King Richard'.

* Best Original Screenplay - awarded to Asghar Farhadi for 'A Hero'.

* Best Adapted Screenplay - awarded to Joel Coen for 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'.

* Best Animated Feature - awarded to 'Encanto'.

* Breakthrough Performance - awarded to Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman for 'Licorice Pizza'. 

* Best Directorial Debut - awarded to Michael Sarnoski for 'Pig'. 

* Best Foreign Language Film - awarded to 'A Hero'. 

* Best Documentary - awarded to 'Summer of Soul ( . . . Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).

* Best Ensemble - awarded to 'The Harder They Fall'.

* Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography - awarded to Bruno Delbonnel for 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'.

* NBR Freedom of Expression - awarded to 'Flee'.

* The Top Ten Films of the Year were given as 'Belfast', 'Don't Look Up', 'Dune', 'King Richard', 'The Last Duel', 'Licorice Pizza', 'Nightmare Alley', 'Red Rocket', The Tragedy of Macbeth' and 'West Side Story'.

* The Top Ten Independent Films of the Year were given as 'The Card Counter', 'C'mon C'mon', 'CODA', 'The Green Knight', 'Holler', 'Jockey', 'Old Henry', 'Pig', 'Shiva Baby' and 'The Souvenir Part II'. 

* The Top Five Foreign Langauge Films of the Year were given as 'Benedetta', 'Lamb', 'Lingui : The Sacred Bonds', 'Titane' and 'The Worst Person in the World'.

* The Top Five Documentaries of the Year were given as 'Ascension', 'Attica', 'Flee', 'The Rescue' and 'Roadrunner : A Film About Anthony Bourdain'. 

For the full details of the 93rd NBR Awards plus a whole lot more, you can go to the official website at : https;//www.nationalboardofreview.org/

Turning attention to this weeks five new releases, we kick off with a film inspired Princess Diana's decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles and leave the British royal family. This is followed up with a story of an ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words who hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is. Next up is a Chinese offering about a film fan who escapes from a labour camp and befriends a homeless female vagabond and possibly the best movie projectionist for miles around. We then close out the week with two animated feature films which couldn't be more different - the first is a new take on a classic story that sees a studious marmoset embarking on a wild adventure to travel around the planet in 80 days after accepting a challenge from a greedy frog, before closing out the week with a Japanese animated offering about a high school student who becomes a globally beloved singer after entering a fantastic virtual world, and soon embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of a mysterious beast.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'SPENCER' (Rated M) - this work of historical fiction is a psychological drama film Directed and Co-Produced by Pablo Larrain, whose prior film making credits include his 2006 debut 'Fuga' and then 'No' in 2012, 'Neruda' in 2016 and the critically acclaimed 'Jackie' in 2016 also with 'Ema' in 2019. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year before its release in the US and UK in early November. Having generated largely positive Critical Reviews, 'Spencer' has so far recovered US$15M from its US$18M budget outlay, and has picked up twenty-eight awards and a further ninety-six nominations (many of which are still pending an outcome) from around the awards and festival circuit. 

Set during the Christmas holiday 1991 with the royal family at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, where there's eating and drinking, shooting and hunting aplenty - Diana Spencer (Kristen Stewart) knows the game. But this year, things will be profoundly different. Diana, struggling with mental health issues and anxiety decides to end her decade-long marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing). 'Spencer' is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days. Also starring Timothy Spall, Sean Harris and Sally Hawkins. 

'NIGHTMARE ALLEY' (Rated MA15+) - is an American neo-noir psychological thriller film that is Directed, Co-Written for the screen and Co-Produced by Guillermo del Toro whose previous film making credits take in 'Hell Boy', 'Pacific Rim', 'Crimson Peak' and the Academy Award winning 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'The Shape of Water'. This film is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, and is the second feature film adaptation following the 1947 film starring Tyrone Power. Set in 1940's era New York, down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Copper) endears himself to a clairvoyant Zeena Krumbein (Toni Collette) and her mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival owned by Clem Hoately (Willem Dafoe). Using newly acquired knowledge, Carlisle crafts a golden ticket to success by swindling the elite and wealthy. Hoping for a big score, he soon hatches a scheme to con a dangerous tycoon with help from a mysterious psychiatrist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) who might be his most formidable opponent yet. Also starring Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, Holt McCallany and Tim Blake Nelson. The film has garnered generally positive Reviews and has recovered US$9M in Box Office receipts from its US$60M production budget so far, having been released Stateside in mid-December last year. 

'ONE SECOND' (Rated M) - is a Chinese drama film that is Directed and and written for the screen by Zhang Yimou whose previous film making credits include his debut 'Red Sorghum' in 1987, 'Raise the Red Lantern' in 1991, 'Hero' in 2002, 'House of Flying Daggers' in 2004, 'The Flowers of War' in 2011, 'The Great Wall' in 2016 and 'Shadow' in 2018. Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution (circa 1976), when movies were one of the few cultural experiences available to China’s masses, the film’s nameless hero (Zhang Yi) is sent to a remote labour camp for taking part in a fight. He escapes, but instead of returning to crime, his one aim is to see a screening of a newsreel where his daughter has been captured briefly on screen, immortalised as a model student and worker. In this journey towards a fleeting, cinematic reunion with his beloved daughter, his unexpected companions include a scruffy orphan girl named Liu (Liu Haocun) — pursuing her own secret search for celluloid, and Fan (Fan Wei), who goes by Mr. Movie and is widely known as the best projectionist around. The film was released in its native China in November 2020, has generated mostly positive Critical acclaim and has grossed US$20M so far at the Box Office. 

'AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS' (Rated PG) - this French and Belgian Co-Produced animated feature film is Directed by Samuel Tourneux in his feature film making debut, and is based on the much adapted Jules Verne novel of the same name from 1872. Passepartout (voiced by Julien Crampon) is a young and scholarly marmoset who always dreams of becoming an explorer. One day, he crosses paths with Phileas (Damien Frette), a reckless and greedy frog, eager to take on a bet to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days and earn 10 million clams in the process. Seizing the opportunity of a lifetime to explore the world, Passepartout embarks with his new friend on a crazy and exhilarating adventure full of twists and surprises.

'BELLE' (Rated PG) - is a Japanese animated science fantasy film that is Directed and written for the screen by Mamoru Hosoda and is based on and inspired by the 1756 French fairy tale 'Beauty and the Beast' by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. The film saw its World Premiere showcase in mid-July last year at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it was well-received by critics with a standing ovation that lasted fourteen minutes, the longest of any film shown at the festival. It was released in its native Japan a day after Cannes, and has so far grossed US$59M before its release in the US this week too and the UK in early February. Suzu Naito (Kaho Nakamura) is a 17-year-old high school student living in a rural village with her father (Koji Yakusho). For years she has only been a shadow of herself. One day, she enters 'U', a virtual world of five billion subscribers on the Internet. There, she is not Suzu anymore but Belle, a world-famous singer. She soon meets with a mysterious dragon creature (Takeru Satoh) that is being pursued by vigilantes. Together, they embark on a journey of adventures, challenges, and love, in their quest of becoming who they truly are.

With five new release movie offerings 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 at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE KING'S MAN : Tuesday 11th January 2022.

I saw 'THE KING'S MAN' at my local multiplex this week and this MA15+ Rated spy action film is Directed, written for the screen, based on a story and Co-Produced by Matthew Vaughn, and is based on the 2012 comic book series created by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbons known as 'The Secret Service'. This film serves as a prequel to 2014's 'The Kingsman : The Secret Service' and 2017's 'Kingsman : The Golden Circle' both Directed also by Matthew Vaughn which between them grossed US$826M off the back of combined production budgets of US$195M. This film was released on 22nd December in the US, on 26th December 2021 in the UK and was last week released in Australia having been delayed several times from an original November 2019 release date, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film received mixed reviews from critics, grossing US$75M so far. 

At the turn of the 20th Century Orlando, the Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes), his wife Emily (Alexandra Maria Lara) and young son Conrad (Alexander Shaw) visit a concentration camp in South Africa during the Boer War while working for the Red Cross. Emily is killed during a Boer sniper attack on the camp, causing pacifist Orlando to determine that the world needs someone to head off such conflicts before they arise. Fast forward twelve years, and Orlando has recruited two of his servants, Shola (Djimon Hounsou) and Polly (Gemma Arterton), into his spy network dedicated to protecting the United Kingdom and the British Empire from the imminent Great War. Conrad (Harris Dickinson) is eager to fight on the front line but is forbidden to join up by his protective father, who persuades his close friend Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War (Charles Dance), not to let him join the army. 

Upon the express wishes of Lord Kitchener, Conrad and Orlando ride with Orlando's friend Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Ron Cook) through Sarajevo, and Conrad saves the Archduke from a bomb thrown by Gavrilo Princip (Joel Basman), a rebel intent on sparking a war. Later, Princip runs into the Archduke's entourage again, this time succeeding in fatally shooting Ferdinand and his wife Sophia. Orlando's group learn that Princip was part of a plot to pit the German, Russian, and British empires against each other. The group, headed by the mysterious Shepherd from a secret mountain-top headquarters, have their own network of agents, including the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans), a trusted adviser to Tsar Nicholas (Tom Hollander) of Russia. Rasputin, working under the direction of the Shepherd, manipulates Tsar Nicholas by poisoning his young son, and only curing him when the Tsar agrees to leave the war. 

Conrad is notified of Rasputin's manipulation by his cousin Felix Yusupov (Aaron Vodovoz). Knowing the Western Front will be left vulnerable if Russia exits the war, Conrad delivers this information to Kitchener and his personal assistant Major Morton (Matthew Goode), who embark for Russia on a steam ship. Their ship is torpedoed by a submarine, which is split in two and sinks rapidly in a ball of flame apparently killing them both. Word of Kitchener's death reaches Orlando, spurring him to head to Russia with Shola, Polly, and Conrad to put an end to Rasputin once and for all. At a Christmas party hosted by Prince Yusupov, Orlando, Shola, Conrad, and Rasputin get into a fight with the skirmish only ending when Polly shoots Rasputin between the eyes and kills him.

Again, at the Shepherd's insistence, Erik Jan Hanussen (Daniel Bruhl), an adviser to Kaiser Wilhelm II (Tom Hollander), sends a secret diplomatic communication that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico, hoping to sidetrack Britain and the USA. Although the message is intercepted by British intelligence and given to the United States, President Woodrow Wilson (Ian Kelly) refuses to join the war without absolute proof. The Shepherd recruits Vladimir Lenin (August Diehl) and orders his Bolsheviks to overthrow the Tsar and remove Russia from the war, and sending an assassin to kill off the Romanovs.

Now nineteen years of age, Conrad is free to join the war effort without intervention from his father. He is commissioned into the Grenadier Guards against his father's wishes. Orlando meets with King George V (Tom Hollander) who agrees to give his son an administrative pen pushing desk job and thus summons Conrad back to Britain. Conrad sends back a young soldier in his place named Lance Corporal Archie Reid (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), giving him the codename 'Lancelot' to send a message to his father. Disguised as Archie, a member of the Black Watch, Royal Regiment of Scotland, Conrad volunteers for a mission into No-Man's Land to retrieve information from a British agent wounded there, but is mistaken for a German spy upon his return and executed at point blank range with a bullet to the head. However, the information he retrieved from the spy is the proof President Wilson required to enter the war. Orlando is devastated by the news of his sons death, and crawls inside a bottle of Scotch to drown his sorrows, refuses to eat, shave, and leave the house for weeks on end. It takes King George to visit Orlando and present him with a Victoria Cross medal awarded posthumously to Conrad for gallantry and valour and Polly to finally make him come to his senses, after she resigns from his service, which he ultimately refuses to accept. 

Orlando's group learns that President Wilson is being blackmailed with a film of him being seduced by one of the Shepherd's agents, Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner). Orlando locates her at the American Embassy and after overpowering her recovers her cashmere scarf, made from rare wool only found in one specific mountainous region. Having identified this location as the Shepherd's base of operations, Orlando, Shola, and Polly head there and fight their way inside. Morton, who had faked his own death and sunk the battleship, is revealed to be the Shepherd (Matthew Goode). Orlando and Shola fight and kill the Shepherd while Polly recovers the original film negative of Wilson's seduction and returns it to the American President, who promptly burns it on the open fireplace in the Oval Office, so allowing his country's forces to mobilise, and ultimately bring an end to the Great War.

Fast forward twelve months after the end of the war, and Orlando has purchased the Kingsman Tailor Shop as a front for his organisation. Gathered around the table as Orlando announces the formation of the original Kingsman are Polly (codenamed Galahad), King George (Percival), Archie Reid (Lancelot), and US Ambassador Chester King (Stanley Tucci as Bedivere) as Shola enters the room late and is given the codename Merlin, with Orlando taking the name of Arthur - all from the legend of King Arthur in honour of Conrad. Remain in your seat for a mid-credits sequence in which Hanussen has assumed the mantle of the Shepherd and in talks with Lenin introduces him to the Romanovs assassin - one young Adolf Hitler (David Kross).

Like Quentin Tarantino's movie 'Inglorious Basterds' did with reimagining the outcome of WWII, here Matthew Vaughn reimagines the outcome of WWI and does so with a comic book style that helps keep the narrative fresh and at times surprising. The action set pieces, of which there are plenty, are well handled but offer up nothing new that we haven't seen a hundred times before, but which are nonetheless likely to satisfy fans of the first two films in the series. Whilst there are some moments of humour in this film, the storyline here offers up more emotion, and greater sincerity than its predecessors which helps in keeping the wild running plot grounded and relatable . . . just! Ralph Fiennes is dependable as ever in his role as the main protagonist here and playing largely against type just as Colin Firth did in the first two instalments, and proving just how adept he is at close quarter hand to hand combat, and maintaining that stiff British upper lip whilst dressed in the best threads of the era. The remaining ensemble cast all deliver too, especially Rhys Ifans in his over the top camp performance as Rasputin, who ultimately gets his comeuppance that isn't too far removed from the truth it seems. All up, 'The King's Man' is an enjoyable enough romp through an alternate WWI history, is an acceptable origin story, has some standout performances but fails to deliver on what made 'Kingsman : The Secret Service' so memorable and fresh, and is only just a notch or two above 'Kingsman : The Golden Circle'. 

'The King's Man' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-