What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 7th September 2023

The 48th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) takes place between Thursday 7th September through until Sunday 17th. The Festival's Mission states that 'TIFF is dedicated to presenting the best of international and Canadian cinema and creating transformational experiences for film lovers and creators of all ages and backgrounds. As Canada's premiere home of cinema, TIFF offers screenings, lectures, discussions, festivals, workshops, events, professional development and opportunities to meet, hear and learn from filmmakers from Canada and around the world.

The festival's Opening Night film will be the Japanese animated feature 'The Boy and the Heron' Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, which will mark the first time in the festival's history that an animated film has opened. It is slated to conclude with the Closing Night film 'Sly', Thom Zimny's documentary film about Actor Sylvester Stallone.

In this years Gala Presentation section there are twenty films, these being, in brief :-

* 'The Boy and the Heron' - the Opening Night film as described above.

* 'Concrete Utopia' - from South Korea this disaster thriller film is Co-Written and Directed by Um Tae-hwa. The film is about an earthquake and its aftermath.

* 'Dumb Money' - from the USA and Directed by Craig Gillespie, this biographical comedy drama film is based on the true story of a group of rag-tag investors who banded together to put the squeeze on at least two hedge funds that had bet that GameStop shares would fall in January 2021. 

* 'The End We Start From' - from the UK and Directed by Mahalia Belo this survival film tells the story following an ecological crisis when a new mother and her baby abandon their home in flooded London and flee northwards.

* 'Fair Play' - from the USA and Written and Directed by Chloe Domont, this erotic thriller film centres on a young couple whose relationship starts to unravel following an unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund firm.

* 'Finestkind' - from the USA and Written and Directed by Brian Helgeland, this crime thriller drama is about two estranged brothers who hatch a deal with a Boston crime syndicate, ultimately spelling danger for the brothers and their father as well as a mysterious young woman.

* 'Flora and Son' - from Ireland and the USA and Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Scored by John Carney this musical comedy drama follows Flora, a single mother living in Dublin, who is having trouble with her estranged son Max, a rebellious teenage petty thief. Flora rescues an old guitar from a skip and, with the help of a Los Angeles-based online guitar teacher, discovers that one person's rubbish can be another person's salvation.

* 'The New Boy' - from Australia and Written and Directed by Warwick Thornton, this drama film tells the story of a young Aboriginal Australian orphan boy who is brought into a Christian monastery run by a renegade nun, where he begins to develop supernatural abilities and question his beliefs.

* 'A Normal Family' - from South Korea and Directed by Hur Jin-ho, this drama offering centres on two wealthy families who meet for dinner to discuss and decide how to handle a violent crime committed by their sons.

* 'Nyad' - from the USA and Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, this fictional sports drama film is based on the life and times of long distance swimmer Diana Nyad and is based on Nyad's autobiography 'Find a Way'. 

* 'The Royal Hotel' - from Australia and Co-Written and Directed by Kitty Green, and in this thriller film two young backpackers take jobs at The Royal Hotel, an Australian Outback bar.

* 'Sly' - from the USA and Directed by Thom Zimny this biographical documentary charts the life and times over the nearly fifty year prolific career of Sylvester Stallone, who has entertained millions, and is seen in retrospective in an intimate look at the Actor, Writer, Director-Producer, paralleling with his inspirational life story.

* 'Solo' - from Canada and Written and Directed by Sophie Dupuis, and this romantic drama offering is about a young emerging drag queen in Montreal who is drawn into a passionate but complicated romance while simultaneously navigating a reunion with his estranged mother, whom he has not seen since she left Canada fifteen years previously to pursue her career as an opera singer.

* 'Swan Song' - from Canada and Co-Written and Directed by Chelsea McMullan, this documentary film profiles the National Ballet of Canada Artistic Director and former dancer Karen Kain as she Directs a production of Swan Lake for the company as her final project before retiring.

The TIFF Tribute Awards, the festival's programme of honouring film personnel for their overall achievements in cinema, will see Spike Lee announced as the recipient of the Ebert Director Award, and Pedro Almodovar as the recipient of the Jeffrey Skoll Award in Impact Media, and Shawn Levy has been announced as the recipient of the inaugural Norman Jewison Award for career achievement. Polish Cinematographer Lukasz Zal has been named the recipient of the Variety Artisan Award, Brazilian film Director Carolina Markowicz has been named the recipient of the Emerging Talent Award, and Hong Kong Actor and singer Andy Lau will be presented with a Special Tribute Award.

For all the other film streams being showcased including the Centrepiece (formerly known as Contemporary World Cinema), Special Presentations, TIFF Docs, Discovery, Platform, Midnight Madness, Short Cuts and Wavelengths, and a whole bunch of other good stuff, you can visit the official 2023 TIFF website at : https://tiff.net/about-tiff-2023

Turning the attention then back to this weeks seven new release movies coming to a big screen Odeon close to home, we kick off with a Sci-Fi comedy set in the near future in which two men must adapt and evolve to save the last vestiges of the human race. This is followed by supernatural horror sequel offering that once again sees a sister coming face to face with a demonic force in a French boarding school in 1956. Next we have a Brazilian drama film about a family struggling to care for their bedridden patriarch who are offered a diabolical deal - to put their elder to rest and host an Argentinian drug kingpin in need of a place to hide. Then we turn to a comedy film telling the story of eccentric staff members at an upstate New York theatre camp who must band together when their beloved founder falls into a coma. Following on we have a French film about a much loved woman who is badly in debt, who on her way to Lisbon, at the airport meets an old classmate. Up next is a third film in this franchise that sees this family on a trip to Greece for a family reunion after the death of the family patriarch; before closing out the week with an animated feature that follows four Turtle brothers as they work to earn the love of New York City while facing down an army of mutants.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the seven 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 coming week.

'BIOSPHERE' (Rated M) - is an American Sci-Fi comedy film that is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Mel Eslyn is her feature film Directing debut. The film saw its World Premiere at the September 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, was released in the US in early July, has garnered mixed or average reviews and has so far grossed just $60K in Box Office sales.

In the not-too-distant future, and following a global apocalypse that has killed almost all humans, the only survivors are childhood friends Billy (Mark Duplass), the former President of the United States of America, and Ray (Sterling K. Brown), a scientist and Billy's former adviser. Billy feels responsible for causing the apocalypse, and the two live in a dome built by Ray that protects them from the outside environment. As the last two men on Earth they must adapt and evolve in order to save humanity.

'THE NUN II' (Rated M) - this American gothic supernatural horror film is Directed by Michael Chaves and is a sequel to 2018's 'The Nun' and the ninth instalment in 'The Conjuring Universe' franchise of which Chaves made his Directing debut with 'The Curse of La Llorona' in 2019 and 'The Conjuring : The Devil Made Me Do It' in 2021. Here then, set four years after the events of the first film and in 1956 France, a priest is murdered, and it seems an evil is spreading. Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) once again comes face to face with the demonic force of Valak, the Nun, at a boarding school in France. Also starring Jonas Bloquet and Bonnie Aarons as Valak both reprising the roles from the first film. 2018's 'The Nun' grossed US$366M off the back of a production budget of US$22M with those first eight films in the entire franchise having grossed US$2.133B off the back of combined budgets of US$179M.

'CHARCOAL' (Rated MA15+) - is an Argentinian and Brazilian Co-Produced drama film Written and Directed by Carolina Markowicz in her feature film debut, with her second feature 'Toll' due out later this year. In a remote area of the Sao Paulo countryside, a rural peasant family living beside a charcoal factory struggle to care for their ailing patriarch. One day, however, an Argentine drug lord arrives with an offer to give them a substantial amount of money conditional on permitting him to kill the old man and take his place as part of his efforts to hide out from criminal prosecution. The film saw its World Premiere at last years Toronto International Film Festival. The film has garnered widespread critical acclaim and has so far collected eight wins and eleven nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit.

'THEATRE CAMP' (Rated M) - this American comedy film is Directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman in both of their respective feature Directorial debuts, from a screenplay Co-Written by Gordon and Lieberman, and is a feature-length adaptation of the 2020 short film of the same name. As summer rolls around again, kids are gathering from all over to attend AdirondACTS, a scrappy theatre camp in upstate New York that's a haven for would be performers. After its indomitable founder Joan (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, her clueless 'crypto-bro' son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) is tasked with keeping the thespian paradise running. With financial ruin looming, Troy must join forces with Amos (Ben Platt), Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon), and their band of eccentric teachers and students to come up with a solution before the curtain rises on opening night. The film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year, before its release Stateside in mid-July, has so far taken US$4.2M at the Box Office and has received generally positive reviews.

'EVERYBODY LOVES JEANNE' (Rated M) - is a French and Portuguese Co-Produced comedy drama film Written and Directed by Celine Devaux in her feature film debut. Everybody has always loved Jeanne (Blanche Gardin). These days, she hates herself. Up to her eyeballs in debt, she has to travel to Lisbon and sell her mother’s apartment, who passed away one year ago, in order to get herself out of debt from the earlier collapse of her start-up business. At the airport, she runs into Jean (Laurent Lafitte), a whimsical and somewhat intrusive former high school classmate. The film saw its World Premiere screening at last years Cannes Film Festival before its release in its native France in early September last year, and only now is it released here in Australia, having garnered largely favourable reviews.

'MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 3' (Rated PG) - this third instalment in the 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' franchise is Written, Directed and stars Nia Vardalos who penned the scripts for the first two films and in only her second feature film Directorial outing following 'I Hate Valentine's Day' in 2009. The first two films in the series grossed US$459M off the back of a combined production budget of just US$23M, making this third offering a no brainer. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson serve as Co-Producers on this film as they did on the previous two. This films follow the entire Portokalos (Nia Vardalos and John Corbett as Toula Portokalos and Ian Miller the husband and wife reprising their roles from the prior two films respectively) family on a trip to a village in Greece for a family reunion in order to fulfil the last wish of the late patriarch Gus Portokalos (Michael Constantine who died in August 2021) for a heartwarming and hilarious trip full of love, twists and turns. The film is released in the US this week too. 

'TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES : MUTANT MAYHEM' (Rated PG) - is an American computer animated superhero film that is Directed by Jeff Rowe in only his second Directorial outing following 'The Mitchells vs. the Machines' which he Co-Directed with Mike Rianda in 2021. This film is the seventh cinematic 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' film and a reboot of the Turtles series. Co-Written by Jeff Rowe, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg it is also Co-Produced by Rogen and Goldberg and also stars Rogen too. After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers - Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael (Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jnr., Nicolas Cantu and Brady Noon respectively) set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers. Their new friend, April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri), helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them. Also starring the voices of Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Giancarlo Esposito, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Paul Rudd and Post Malone. The film was released in the UK on 31st July and the US on the 2nd August following its World Premier showing as a work in progress at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in mid-June, has so far grossed US$153M off the back of a US$70M production budget and has garnered generally positive reviews. A sequel film has already been greenlit.

With seven 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 week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-