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-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 24th March 2016.

With Easter upon us, and the awards season behind us, I thought now would be a good time to highlight the twelve potentially block busting must see movies for the balance of 2016. These are those that you should be locking into your diaries now to ensure you get the best seat in the house when these movies come your way. I have not included the DC actioner released this week and Previewed below in this list either, and I'll
give you six this week, and the other six to come next week. Stay tuned!

• April 14th - 'THE JUNGLE BOOK' - Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Neel Sethi as young Mowgli in this live action/CGI reimagining of the Rudyard Kipling book and the 1967 Disney classic animated feature of the same name. Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson land their voice talents.
• April 28th - 'CAPTAIN AMERICA : CIVIL WAR' - Joe and Anthony Russo Direct this all star cast that bring The Avengers into bitter conflict, and divides the once tight team one year on from 'Age of Ultron'.
• May 19th - 'X-MAN : APOCALYPSE' - Bryan Singer is back Directing this ninth instalment in the series that has the 'X-Men' battling an ancient all powerful mutant who teams up with Magneto leaving Professor X going head to head in a battle to save the Earth as we know it.
• June 23rd - 'INDEPENDENCE DAY : RESURGENCE' - Directed by the Master of Disaster, Roland Emmerich, this is the follow up to the 1996 blockbuster that sees those aliens return to wipe out all humankind once more - bigger, badder and bolder than before! Starring Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman and a bunch of bad ass alien types.
• June 30th - 'THE BFG' - Directed by Steven Spielberg, this film is based on the popular children's book of the same name by Roald Dahl, and has Mark Rylance as the Big Friendly Giant and ten year old Ruby Barnhill plucked out of nowhere to play young Sophie.
• July 14th - 'GHOSTBUSTERS' - Paul Feig Directs this reboot of the classic two Ghostbusters paranormal comedy action films of the 80's, but this time will an all female cast of 'Ghostbusters' including Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Kirsten Wiig.

Turning then to the more immediate, this week ahead we have five new cinematic offerings, that kick start in Superhero territory with an eagerly awaited, if not a little controversial, clash of two titans of the genre who go head to head, fist to fist and toe to toe in the second mega budget offering from this extended universe - we expect great things! No pressure there then, as we move into another superhero getting its third CGI animated treatment of the furry, plump, hapless yet lovable kind needing also to thwart an evil foe. Following on from these two potential blockbusters in the making there is a Italian island set thriller surrounding an ageing rock star holidaying peacefully until her world is turned upside down by the arrival of an old flame and his estranged daughter. From here, a tale of modern warfare from a distance and the impact of collateral damage upon three nations involved in one decision, and to wrap things up, another wedding celebration to follow on from that one held in 2002 that proved to be so successful, that they just had to do it all over again!

With more choice coming at you this week, and plenty of good stuff still out on general release as Reviewed and Previewed for you previously on these humble pages, your feedback is always welcomed. As such, feel free to leave your own views and opinions in the Comments section below this or any other Post, and share your movie experience with your friends, here at Odeon Online. Enjoy your movie.

BATMAN v. SUPERMAN : DAWN OF JUSTICE (Rated M) - this much hyped, long awaited and initially controversial next instalment in the DC Extended Universe is finally here, as Directed by Zack Snyder and made for a cool US$250M. This is the second instalment in the DC Extended Universe following 2013's 'Man of Steel' also Directed by Zack Snyder and which made US$668M off its US$225M production budget, and sees once again Henry Cavill reprising his role as Superman/Clark Kent. This film features some big name acting talent and also unites for the first time on the big screen in a live action movie a number of favoured characters from the DC canon - some of whom will get their own big picture outing in future years.

This film takes place two years or so after the events of 'Man of Steel' when Superman's final standoff against General Zod almost wiped out much of Metropolis with many lives lost along the way, city infrastructure ruined and excessive collateral damage. As a result many of Metropolis's inhabitants are left feeling helpless, angry and fearful that Superman is not everything he is cracked up to be and in fact that he may even be a threat to humanity, especially if he continues to go unchecked. One such inhabitant is billionaire Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) who takes it upon himself to wage a one man war against Superman to rid the Earth of him, so that its citizens can rest easy once more. In the wings however, watching and waiting is Lex Luthor (Jessie Eisenberg) who also has plans for Superman, and whilst Batman and Superman battle it out for supremacy. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is free to unleash his own secret weapon, Doomsday, which has far greater power than either Batman or Superman can muster and which poses an even greater threat to humanity than either had imagined. Also starring Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jeremy Irons at Arthur, Laurence Fishburn as Perry White, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Holly Hunter as Senator Finch and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

A BIGGER SPLASH (Rated MA15+) - this English language French/Italian co-produced erotic thriller film is Directed by Italian Luca Guadagnino and was released at the Venice Film Festival in early September, before a wider Italian release in November, and is yet to see the light of day Stateside until mid-May. Starring frequent collaborator Tilda Swinton as Marianne Lane, a famous rock star and Matthias Schoenaerts as Paul De Smedt a film-maker and boyfriend who are holidaying on a remote Italian island when their world is disrupted by a surprise visit from an old friend Harry Hawkes (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter Penelope Lanier (Dakota Johnson). What ensues is a web of jealousy, passion and possible danger for all concerned, set amidst an idyllic island hideaway that ultimately turns into something very different.

EYE IN THE SKY (Rated M) - Directed by Gavin Hood, this film stars the late, great Alan Rickman and is set with the backdrop of modern day drone warfare. Released in the US in early January, here we have Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) as a military intelligence officer tracking a group of terrorists to a safe house in Nairobi, Kenya where she intends to capture them. Learning however, that the group is hatching a plan for a suicide mission, Powell changes her plan to wipe out the terrorists once & for all and so gives the command to drone pilot 2nd Lieutenant Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) to destroy the safe house.  Before doing so though, Watts observes a young girl entering the house - what to do therefore, and upon whose authority now?  Also starring Jeremy Northam and Iain Glen.

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2 (Rated PG) - this is the sequel to the 2002 film that was made for a mere US$5M and returned a staggering US$369M, so on that basis a sequel was almost inevitable, as long as a story could be created around another bigger, fatter Greek wedding. And so it seems it has in this Kirk Jones Directed follow-up! When a family secret unfolds the Portokalos family are brought back together again just as daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris) is getting ready to graduate from High School, and Mum & Dad, Toula (Nia Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett), are having marital challenges themselves. When Toula's parents uncover the secret, another big, fat Greek wedding follows that just might be the tonic needed to reunite the family again. Will this generate a big fat Box Office haul that the first film did - only you can make it happen!

KUNG FU PANDA 3 (Rated PG) - the third film in the franchise follows the initial 2008 film that returned US$632M from US$130M, the second in 2011 garnered US$666M from US$150M and this third film that was released in China on 23rd January and then in the US a week later has so far grossed US$399M from its US$145M Budget. Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni this film stars many of those from the earlier two films including Jack Black as Po who is now growing up and has been reunited with his long lost father Li (Bryan Cranston). Po comes to the realisation too that he has still much to learn from his acclaimed master & mentor Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and must also take that next step from being a student to becoming a teacher himself.  To do so he takes on a group of hapless pandas who are largely clueless in the martial arts, but together with his kung-fu fighting brothers must thwart the evil Kai (J.K.Simmons) who possesses supernatural powers and grows stronger with every fight. Also starring the voice talents of Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Kate Hudson, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Pax, Knox, Zahara and Shiloh Jolie-Pitt.

A big week then at the movies with a few potential blockbusters in the making giving you another great reason to get amongst it at you local picture house. When you have done so, share your thoughts, and in the meantime, I'll see you in the week ahead, at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-