What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 28th March 2019.

Perhaps if you are a film aficionado living in the US you may well have heard and even visited The Ann Arbor Film Festival, but if you live outside America you could be forgiven for never having heard of said festival. Well, for the sake of the uninitiated, The Ann Arbor Film Festival, now in its 57th year, is an annual film festival held in Ann Arbor in the U.S. State of Michigan, this year running from 26th March through until 31st March. Established in 1963, it is the fourth oldest film festival in North America and the oldest experimental film festival. It has become one of the premier film festivals for independent and experimental filmmakers to showcase their work. Created as an alternative to commercial cinema, the annual week-long festival remains true to its original mission of promoting film as an art form. The Ann Arbor Film Festival also fosters the growth of emerging and established film and video makers. The festival is open to film and video of all lengths and genres, including experimental, narrative, animation, documentary, and genre hybrids. The festival's mission is to underpin bold, visionary filmmakers, promote the art of film and new media, and provide communities with remarkable cinematic experiences.

The festival features experimental, documentary and animated short films in competition ranging from anywhere from one minute in length up to twenty or so minutes duration, of which there are sixteen separate screening sessions over the span of the festival, with each session containing at least six shorts. In the 'Features in Competition' section there is :
* 'LAST DAYS OF CHINATOWN' Directed by Nicole Macdonald and telling the story of Detroit's Cass Corridor, one of the roughest areas in the city for the past one hundred years, is now experiencing a complete overhaul, as long-awaited development finally sweeps the area. Exploring who and what remains in the Corridor, we see how residents survived, how they sometimes didn't, who fled the area and why, as gentrification now redefines the Corridor, long home to the poor and disenfranchised as well as to the artists and visionaries of the city.
* 'CLOSING TIME' Directed by Nicole Vogele, it is 3:00am along the Zhongzheng Road in Taipei. The traffic of a 24/7 society throbs through the metropolis in constant waves. Mr. Kuo and his wife, Mrs. Lin, cook for the city’s sleepless. They work at night and sleep through the days, trying to keep afloat. Their eatery is a pit stop, a place of refuge, a warm bowl of rice. Described as a kaleidoscopic journey that relies on colours, sensations, animals, typhoons, and a dark lilac sky—the materials of life.
* 'WONDERS WANDER' Directed by Shu Lea Cheang this is a location-based mobi-web serial with four fictional episodes set in Madrid exploring the off-the-mainstream nouveau-queer generation that includes refugees, migrants, functional diversity, transfeminista, transfeminism, open family, subversive motherhoods, sustainable living, and the rise of auto-defense practices for self-empowerment.
* 'CABALLERANGO' Directed by Juan Pablo Gonzalez, a family here reflects on a young man’s disappearance in a Mexican village under the watchful eyes of the horse that saw him last.
* 'TWO A.M.' Directed by Loretta Fahrenholz, here Sanna is pitted against an overbearing family of mind-reading 'Watchers'. As a telepathic Police state manipulates social unrest in a city in flames, Sanna attempts to reconnect with her sister Algin, a blacklisted pop singer. On the run from her unpredictably sinister Watcher cousins, Sanna is soon joined by her lover Franz. But just as the possibility of freedom seems finally within reach, a drug-fueled party takes a turn for the worse.
* '<3' Directed by LNZ Arturo and described as a sixty-minute selfie; a coming-of-age story in a technological communications revolution where love gets uploaded, digitally dislocated, unseen, and lost, bit by bit, into an asynchronous Internet landscape.
* 'NOTHING OR EVERYTHING' Directed by Gyeol Kim and set in both the past and the present, two people walk deep into a mountain forest. For these two women born and raised in the city, there is no place more unfamiliar. Here, two people in the present climb the mountain, following two people from the past. The film unfolds with past and present overlapping in the same space, depicting two heartbroken women.
* 'MY FRIEND THE POLISH GIRL' Directed by Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek, here an experimental documentary told through the eyes of Katie—an amateur filmmaker and American rich kid— who is lensing a film about Alicja, an erratic unemployed Polish actress. Set in a post-Brexit London, Katie colonises and disrupts Alicja’s life, mirroring the treatment of migrants in the U.K. at first welcomed, used, and then discarded.
* 'VULTURE' Directed by Philip Hoffman, this film sets its sights on farm animals and their surrounding flora. Static shots and slow-moving zooms follow the grazing animals in their minute interspecies exchanges.
* 'HOW WE LIVE : MESSAGES TO THE FAMILY' Directed by Gustav Deutsch the film undertakes its journey via amateur film recordings, not only producing a community between various people from various places, but also establishing a timeless togetherness, allowing generations of filmmakers to speak to one another and, via the medium of the movie screen, to us.

You can get the whole run down on the Ann Arbor Film Festival at the official website at : https://www.aafilmfest.org/

This week we have five new release movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with a live action retelling of a classic Disney animated feature from 78 years ago that tells a modified story but still retains the touchstones of that much loved film about a certain young elephant with an exceptional talent. We then have a change of pace from a second time Director who has already established himself as a master of the genre in this psychological horror thriller about a family invaded by a group of doppelgängers. This is followed by two romantic dramas - the first telling the story of two teenage kids with Cystic Fibrosis who must keep a safe distance for fear of spreading infection to each other, and the second of two teenage kids in WWII Germany who come from very different backgrounds and who fall for each other despite the mortal dangers this puts them both in. We then wrap up the week with a historical retelling of a particular moment of tragedy in English history that ultimately brought about change for good, but at the expense of those who died and were wounded in the process, which ran into hundreds.

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

'DUMBO' (Rated PG) - with this American fantasy adventure film, Walt Disney Studios continues with its live action reimagining of some of its classic animated features that has already taken in 'The Jungle Book' with 'Alladin' and 'The Lion King' coming later this year too. Inspired by the 1941 Disney animated classic of the same name and based on the book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, the 1941 film was the fourth animated feature film put out by Disney after 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', 'Pinocchio' and 'Fantasia'. Costing US$950K to make the film grossed US$1.6M at the Box Office making it the most financially successful movie of that decade for the studio. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant'.

And so to this live action treatment as Directed by Tim Burton. Here the owner of a small and struggling circus, Max Medici (Danny DeVito) enlists Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), a war veteran and former circus star to care for a newborn elephant whose oversized ears make him a laughing stock in the already ailing circus. But when Holt's children discover that Dumbo can fly, persuasive and ruthless entrepreneur V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and a French trapeze artist named Colette Marchant (Eva Green) swoop in to make the peculiar pachyderm a star and exploit its talents. Also starring Alan Arkin, the film is released in the US this week too.

'US' (Rated MA15+) - and so Jordan Peele here brings us this highly anticipated and already critically acclaimed American psychological horror thriller film, which he also Co-Produced with Jason Blum, and wrote. Following hot on the heels of his previous also acclaimed debut feature 'Get Out' in 2017, here Peele Directs Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke as married couple Adelaide Wilson and Gabriel 'Gabe' Wilson together with their son Jason (Alex Wilson) and daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) who plan on spending some quality family time at their beach house. The family plan on spending this time with good friends Kitty and Josh Tyler (Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker respectively) and their twin kids Gwen and Maggie (Cali and Noelle Sheldon), but their peaceful retreat is shattered when tension and chaos erupts with a group of evil strangers, known as 'The Tethered' who look identical to them, arrive to cause all manner of ill will, mayhem and upset most foul. The film was made for US$20M got its World Premier screening at South by South West on 8th March and went on release in the US last week.

'FIVE FEET APART' (Rated M) - this romantic drama film is Directed by Justin Baldoni and centres around seventeen year old Stella Grant (Haley Lu Richardson) who spends most of her time in hospital as a Cystic Fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control. However, all of this is put to the test when she meets Will Newman (Cole Sprouse), an impossibly charming teen who suffers from the same illness. There's an instant attraction, even though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them - five feet no less. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace their relationship. The film cost US$7M to make, has so far recouped US$35M following its release in the US on 15th March and has so far garnered mixed or average Reviews.

'WHERE HANDS TOUCH' (Rated M) - here British Ghanaian Director, Screenwriter and Actress Amma Asante brings us this fictionalised historical WWII romantic coming of age drama film in which 15 year old Leyna (Amandla Stenberg), daughter of a white German mother Kerstin (Abbie Cornish) and a black French-African soldier father stationed in Germany after the end of the First World War, who lives in fear because of the colour of her skin. When she and her mother relocate to Berlin for safety reasons Leyna meets Lutz (George MacKay), the son of a prominent SS officer and a compulsory member of the Hitler Youth, the two fall helplessly in love, ultimately placing both their lives in danger. Seen through the eyes of a bi-racial teen as she witnesses the persecution of Jews and those deemed 'non-pure', the film has received generally poor Reviews to date, saw its Premier screening at TIFF back in September last year, was released in the US in mid-September and has so far taken less than US$70K at the Box Office.

'PETERLOO' (Rated M) - Mike Leigh, that highly acclaimed British Writer and Director of such notable fare over the years as 'Secrets & Lies', 'Topsy-Turvy', 'Vera Drake' and 'Mr. Turner' most recently, here delivers us this British historical drama recounting the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. To put some historical context around the event, on 16th August 1819, a crowd of some 60,000 people from Manchester and the surrounding towns and villages gathered in St Peter’s Fields, Manchester to demand Parliamentary reform and an extension of voting rights. The gathering had been peaceful but in the attempt to arrest a leader of the meeting, the armed government militia panicked and set upon the crowd. As many as fifteen people were killed and up to seven hundred were wounded. The immediate effect of the massacre was a crackdown on reform, as the authorities feared the country was heading towards armed rebellion. The film was screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival in early September last year, went on release in the UK in early November, gets its US release on 5th April, and has generated largely favourable Reviews. The film stars Rory Kinnear, Tim McInnerny, Patrick Kennedy and Maxine Peake.

With five new release movies 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-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 22nd December 2016.

As another year draws to a close I take this opportunity to wish my loyal and ever expanding Blog readership a very Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2017 to you all. Thank-you for your support of Odeon Online in the past twelve months - it makes the writing, the research, the time and countless hours spent in a dark place with a bunch of strangers worthwhile and all the more fulfilling. It's been a big year at the movies, and 2017 promises more of the same and as long as you keep reading, I'll keep watching and writing. Thanks again, and may your festive season he fun, relaxing, safe and cinematic in some way.

This week there are three new release films ahead of the Boxing Day rush, and all three are character studies centering around everyday couples living their everyday lives but challenged in some way. The first sees an aspiring prolific poet who loses his complete works, only to be given some sort of salvation by a Japanese mystery man when he least expected it. Then a true life drama bio-pic of inter-racial marriage when it was truly frowned up on by family, Governments and the laws of the land, and then next is a French film of a random encounter of two people that has far reaching and unexpected consequences for them both as they get to know each other.

Three films then to tempt you out to your local movie theatre in the lead up to Christmas, together with a haul of other great cinema content still out of general release and as Reviewed and Previewed between these pages. Remember too that your constructive, relevant, pertinent feedback is always warmly welcomed when you have sat through your film of choice in the week ahead. Simply leave a Comment below this or any other Post - we'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy your movie.

'PATERSON' (Rated M) - Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch, this film competed for the Palme D'Or at this years Cannes Film Festival and it walked away with the Palm Dog Award for the performance of the dog, Marvin, who plays an important role in the film's story. Here we have Paterson (Adam Driver), a bus driver living in the city of Paterson, New Jersey, and the film charts a week in the life of the man who drives his bus and writes poetry in between shifts, or when inspiration takes him. He records his poetic thoughts in a notebook, based on his observations of life as he passes it by, and the idle chatter of his passengers. Each day after work he takes his dog Marvin for a walk around the block stopping off at his favoured jazz bar for a beer and to observe the conversations and the comings & goings of the other patrons to the bar with the owner Doc (Barry Shabaka Henley).

His wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) is his biggest fan of his poetry and she urges him to get his work published or at least copy his material. He finally relents and agrees to copy his work, but returning home one evening later in the week after the couple have shared a evening out together, they discover that Marvin has ripped to shreds Paterson's note book, destroying all of his poetry. The next day a forlorn Paterson takes solace at his favourite beauty spot overlooking The Great Falls of the Passaic River where he encounters a mysterious Japanese man who is reading the works of his own favourite Poet William Carlos Williams, and the mystery man hands him an empty notebook as a gift. Hailed as Driver's best performance to date, and one of Jarmusch's finest works also, this is a slow burn movie where very little happens, but it is an intense character study that is restrained, thoughtful and a celebration of a simple life.

'A UNITED KINGDOM' (Rated PG) - Directed by Amma Asante and based on the real life story of the inter-racial romance that developed in 1948 between Sir Seretse Khama who was born into one of the more powerful of the royal families of the then British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, and educated in South Africa and in the United Kingdom, he returned, with a popular but controversial bride, Ruth Williams, a Lloyds of London clerk, to lead his country's race for independence. He founded the Botswana Democratic Party in 1962 and became Prime Minister in 1965. In 1966, Botswana gained independence and Seretse Khama became its first President. This is that story of Seretse (David Oyelowo) and Ruth (Rosmaund Pike) and how their love for each other was frowned upon by their respective families, and the Governments of South Africa and Great Britain at the time. Defying their families, apartheid and the British Empire the pair move from their exile back to their African Kingdom to take on the mantle of power following Botswana's independence. The film also stars Tom Felton, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Jessica Oyelowo. The film Premiered at TIFF in September, saw its UK release in November and is released Stateside in February 2017. The film has so far received generally positive reviews.

'ROSALIE BLUM' (Rated M) - this French foreign language film was released in late March this year in France and has been touring around the festival circuit ever since gaining much critical praise in the process. Although released officially this week, it has been showing for some weeks already at selected cinemas around the country. Based on the trilogy of graphic novels by Camille Jourdy and written for the big screen and also Directed in his debut by Julien Rappeneau this comedy/drama tells the story in three chapters of Vincent Machot (Kyan Khojandi) a 30+ year old hairdresser whose life revolves around his work, his overbearing mother and a cousin who is trying to set up Vincent with the prefect date. One day when running an errand for his mother, he happens on Rosalie Blum (Noemie Lvovsky) a grocery store worker and their eyes meet. Vincent is convinced they have met before, but knows not when, where or how. He becomes intrigued by Rosalie and starts obsessing about her, to a point where he begins following her. What ensues are a series of dramatic, adventurous and funny coincidences that ultimately bring the pair together and change their lives thereafter.

With three films taking us up to Christmas, and a slew of new releases coming your way on Boxing Day too. Keep watching for more Previews, Reviews and updates, and in the meantime, I'll see you sometime in the coming week, at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-