What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 7th December 2017.

The 27th annual Gotham Awards were held on Monday evening 27th November at Cipriani Wall Street, New York, and hosted this year by Actor and Director John Cameron Mitchell. The IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) Gotham Awards, are selected by distinguished juries and presented in New York City, the home of independent film. This public showcase honours the filmmaking community, expands the audience for independent films, and supports the work that IFP does behind the scenes throughout the year to bring such films to fruition. The Independent Filmmaker Project champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution, and represents a growing network of 10,000 storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 new feature and documentary works each year. During its 36-year history, IFP has supported over 8,000 projects and offered resources to more than 20,000 filmmakers. The winners and grinners at this years Awards Ceremony are as detailed below :-

* Best Feature : Awarded to 'Call Me By Your Name', beating out 'The Florida Project', 'Get Out', 'Good Time' and 'I, Tonya'.
* Best Actor : Awarded to James Franco as Tommy Wiseau on 'The Disaster Artist'.
* Best Actress : Awarded to Saoirse Ronan as Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson on 'Lady Bird'.
* Best Screenplay : Awarded to Jordan Peele for 'Get Out'.
* Breakthrough Actor : Awarded to Timothee Chalamet as Elio Perlman on 'Call Me By Your Name'.


* Breakthrough Director Award : Awarded to Jordan Peele for 'Get Out'.
* Audience Award : 'Get Out'.
* Special Jury Award - Ensemble Performance : Awarded to Jonathan Banks, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan and Mary J. Blige on 'Mudbound'.
* Gotham Tributes : Awarded to Sofia Coppola, Nicole Kidman, Dustin Hoffman, Al Gore, Jason Blum and Ed Lachman.
Congratulations to all those winners, and those nominated also in their respective categories. For more information, you can go to : https://gotham.ifp.org/

This week there are just three new movies coming to your local Odeon. We kick off with the latest offering from this prolific film maker about the lives of four individuals whose worlds intersect in the late '50's Noo Yawk amusement park amidst gangsters, a would be playwright, a long lost daughter and an actress turned waitress. We then turn to a past and present set Irish tale about a mentally ill committed woman living under the shadow of an alleged crime of fifty years previously only to have the truth come out and free her in the twilight of her years. Wrapping up we have a Japanese manga animated offering of one young girls struggle to reconcile the horrors of WWII in Japan against the responsibilities she has to her new husband and his family in Hiroshima.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three latest release films 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 here warmly invited 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 experience during the week ahead.

'WONDER WHEEL' (Rated PG) - this American crime drama film is Written and Directed by Woody Allen in his 53rd outing as Director since making his debut back in 1966. The film closed out the October New York Film Festival, was released in the US last week on Allen's 82nd Birthday, cost US$25M to make and has so far generated mixed to average Reviews. The film is set in the late 1950's on New York's Coney Island amusement park.

Here the lives of four people collide among the ebb and flow of the Coney Island amusement park. There is Ginny (Kate Winslet), an emotionally volatile former actress now working as a waitress in a clam house; Humpty (Jim Belushi), Ginny's rough around the edges carousel operator husband; Mickey (Justin Timberlake), a handsome young lifeguard at the Coney Island Beach who has aspirations of making it big as a playwright; and Carolina (Juno Temple), Humpty's estranged daughter, who is in hiding out from a mob of gangsters at her father's apartment. At the same time, both Ginny and Carolina are vying for the affections of the same man - budding playwright Mickey, which sends Ginny's life into a tailspin.

'THE SECRET SCRIPTURE' (Rated M) - this Irish offering is Co-Written and Directed by Jim Sheridan (whose previous credits include 'My Left Foot', 'In the Name of the Father' and 'The Boxer') and is based on the 2008 book of the same name by Sebastian Barry. The film was shown at TIFF in October 2016, and had its World Premier screening in its native Ireland in May this year, and has received generally mixed Reviews despite its strong cast. Here Roseanne McNulty (Vanessa Redgrave playing the older, and Rooney Mara playing the younger by some fifty years) must vacate the soon-to-be demolished mental institution in Roscommon, Ireland that has been her home for more than fifty years. The hospital's psychiatrist, Dr. William Grene (Eric Bana), is called in to assess her condition and determine whether she should be transferred or released. He finds himself drawn to Roseanne's habits and foibles, and the strong attachment she has to her Bible, which she has over the years transformed into an alternative work of overwritten scripture, drawings, and cryptic diary entries. As Grene digs deeper into Roseanne's history, we see her as a young woman, whose charisma proves seductive, and moving to Sligo to work in her aunt's café, she falls in love with a dashing fighter pilot Michael McNulty (Jack Reynor), that a local priest Father Gaunt (Theo James) fell tragically in love with her too, and that local man Jack Conroy (Aiden Turner) was also vying for her affections. When the young Roseanne falls pregnant and is committed to a mental hospital, a tragic turn of events unfolds that sees her committed for life until the truth rises to the surface some five decades later.

'IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD' (Rated M) - this Japanese animated wartime WWII drama film is based on the manga of the same name as Written and Illustrated by Fumiyo Kono and is written for the screen and Directed by Sunao Katabuchi. The film was shown at TIFF in October 2016, had its World Premier screening in its native Japan in November 2016 was released Stateside in August this year, and now goes on limited release in Australia. Having been made for just US$2.2M the film has so far grossed US$23M, has garnered generally positive Reviews and has so far picked up 43 Award wins and a further fifteen nominations from around the festivals and awards circuit. Set in the 1930's and '40s in Hiroshima and Kure in Japan, about ten years before and after the atomic bomb, but principally during the end of war years from 1944 through 1945. Following the daily life and routines of new eighteen year old bride Suzu Urano (voiced by Non) who lives on the outskirts of Kure during the second world war. With the mounting likelihood of a war in the Pacific, young Suzu must combat her daily trials during turbulent wartime with her duties to her new husband Shusaku Hojo (voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya) and his family, while finding the strength to carry on regardless. Although this is a fictional story, the scenes and background for the film are based on facts and real incidents as researched by the production team, such as the lost landscape of pre-war Hiroshima, damaged by the atomic bombing, is accurately recreated in the scenes using old photographs, documented evidence, archival footage and the memories of its survivors.

With three new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, with the likes of a '50's crime drama set in Noo Yawk; a '40's drama set in Ireland; and a '40's set animated WWII drama set in Japan, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles afterwards here at Odeon Online. Meanwhile, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 16th - 22nd July 2017

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Juno Temple does on 21st July - check out my tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 28, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 16th July

• Phoebe Cates - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actress 
• Will Ferrell - Born1967, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• Scott Derrickson - Born 1966, turns 51 - Writer | Director | Producer 
• Corey Feldman - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Writer | Director

Monday 17th July

• Donald Sutherland - Born 1935, turns 82 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• David Hasselhoff - Born 1952, turns 65 - Actor | Writer | Singer 
• Jason Clarke - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer 
• F. Gary Gray - Born 1969, turns 48 - Director | Producer | Actor

Tuesday 18th July 

• Paul Verhoeven - Born 1938, turns 79 - Director | Producer | Writer
• James Brolin - Born 1940, turns 77 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Vin Diesel - Born 1967, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Elizabeth McGovern - Born 1961, turns 56 - Actress | Producer
• Kelly Reilly - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actress | Producer
• Kristen Bell - Born 1980, turns 37 - Actress | Singer | Producer  

Wednesday 19th July

• George Dzundza - Born 1945, turns 72 - Actor 
• Abel Ferrara - Born 1951, turns 66 - Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Songwriter
• Atom Egoyan - Born 1960, turns 57 - Director | Writer | Producer | Editor | Actor | Cinematographer 
• Benedict Cumberbatch - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actor | Producer  

Thursday 20th July

• Cormac McCarthy - Born 1933, turns 84 - Writer | Producer
• Josh Holloway - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer
• Diana Rigg - Born 1938, turns 79 - Actress
• Sandra Oh - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actress | Producer  

Friday 21st July

• Charlotte Gainsbourg - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actress | Singer
• Juno Temple - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actress
• Norman Jewison - Born 1926, turns 91 - Director | Producer
• Ross Kemp - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actor | Television Personality | Producer
• John Lovitz - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Josh Hartnett - Born 1978, turns 39 - Actor     

Saturday 22nd July

• Terence Stamp - Born 1938, turns 79 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Danny Glover - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Paul Schrader - Born 1946, turns 71 - Writer | Director | Producer
• Albert Brooks - Born 1947, turns 70 - Actor | Writer | Director 
• Willem Dafoe - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• John Leguizamo - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer
• David Spade - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Rhys Ifans - Born 1967, turns 50 - Actor 
• Franka Potente - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actress | 
• Selena Gomez - Born 1992, turns 25 - Actress | Producer | Singer | Composer

Juno Violet Temple was born in Hammersmith, London, England to mother Amanda Pirie, a film and television Producer, and father Julien Temple, a film, documentary and music video Director. Juno spent the first four years of her life living in the US, an then her parents moved the family back to England where she grew up in Taunton, Somerset and attended Enmore Primary School, then the co-educational independent boarding and day Beadles School in Petersfield, in Hampshire, and then the independent co-educational boarding and secondary day school - King's College, Taunton. From the age of four she had already decided that she wanted to become an Actress, and by fifteen she told her parents that she had serous acting aspirations. She has two younger brothers - Leo and Felix. 

The young Juno began her acting career as a child Actress in the 1997 bio-pic 'Vigo : Passion for Life', as Directed by her father about French film Director Jean Vigo who lived from 1905 to 1934 and was an influence on the French New Wave cinema of the late '50's and early '60's. However, her part ended up on the cutting room floor, but all was not lost. From here she was cast by her father again at the tender age of eleven in the 2000 film 'Pandaemonium' which also starred Andy Serkis, John Hannah and Linus Roache about the early lives of English Poets - William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Her next big screen role came in 2006 in 'Notes on a Scandal' with Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett and Bill Nighy and this was followed up a year later with Joe Wrights acclaimed 'Atonement' with James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan and Benedict Cumberbatch. 'St. Trinian's' comes next in 2007 - for which she would reprise her role in 2009 in 'St. Trinian's 2 : The Legend of Fritton's Gold'. 

In the meantime there was historical drama film offering 'The Other Boleyn Girl' featuring an all star cast comprising the likes of Eric Bana, Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance and Benedict Cumberbatch; then 'Wild Child'; the Harold Ramis Written and Directed comedy 'Year One' with Jack Black; 'Mr. Nobody' with Jared Leto, Rhys Ifans and Diane Kruger; boarding school dramatic thriller 'Cracks' with Eva Green and Imogen Poots; and then early WWII dramatic thriller 'Glorious 39' with Bill Nighy, Eddie Redmayne, Christopher Lee and Hugh Bonneville seeing out the decade.

2010 saw things really take off for Temple with Noah Baumbach's Written and Directed 'Greenberg' with Ben Stiller, then 'Kaboom', followed by 'Dirty Girl' and a couple of short films - the fifteen minute 'Swerve' and the seven minute 'Bastard' for Writer and Director Kirsten Dunst. 'Little Birds' came next in 2011, then historical actioner 'The Three Musketeers' for Paul W. S. Anderson with Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Mads Mikkelsen, Logan Lerman and Mathew Macfadyen, and 'Killer Joe' followed up these for William Friedkin with Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch.

2012 opened with 'Small Apartments' with an ensemble cast consisting the likes of Billy Crystal, James Caan, Matt Lucas, Dolph Lundgren, Johnny Knoxville, Peter Stormare, Rebel Wilson and Saffron Burrows. Romantic horror drama came next with 'Jack & Diane', then a turn in Chris Nolan's epic 'The Dark Knight Rises' followed up by fantasy comedy thriller film 'The Brass Teapot'. 

'Afternoon Delight', 'Magic Magic', the Bio-Pic of Linda Lovelace's life 'Lovelace' with Amanda Seyfried, Sharon Stone, Peter Sarsgaard, James Franco, Robert Patrick and Chloe Sevigny, and then fantasy horror drama 'Horns' alongside Daniel Radcliffe saw out 2013.

Disney's 'Maleficent' with Angelina Jolie and then the Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez Directed 'Sin City' follow-up 'Sin City : A Dame to Kill For' with an all star cast including Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Ray Liotta, Eva Green, Jessica Alba and Rosario Dawson amongst others wrapped up 2014. The next year saw the period piece based on the Thomas Hardy novel 'Far from the Madding Crowd' with Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts before 'Safelight', an uncredited appearance in 'Meadowland', then 'Len and Company' with Rhys Ifans, and Boston gangland Bio-Pic 'Black Mass' about the criminal life and times of James 'Whitey' Bulger with Johnny Depp in the lead role and an ensemble cast taking in Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon and Peter Sarsgaard.

2016 saw Temple star in all ten episodes of Season One of the Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese Co-Written '70's New York music industry drama 'Vinyl' and she followed this up with northern English set drama film 'Away' with Timothy Spall. Then came two episodes on 'Drunk History' whereby historical re-enactments by A-list acting talent are presented by inebriated storytellers. Bringing us up to date is the historical Bio-pic of Madelyn Murray O'Hair - an outspoken and opinionated activist and founder of the American Atheists whose activities led to her kidnapping in 1995. The film, 'The Most Hated Woman in America' was released on Netflix earlier this year.

Recently released Stateside is 'One Percent More Humid', and due for release in December this year is the latest Written and Directed offering from Woody Allen, 'Wonder Wheel' starring Kate Winslet,  Justin Timberlake and James Belushi, with 'The Pretenders' that has wrapped filming and is due for release in 2018 and is Directed and stars James Franco.

All up to date, Temple has 43 Acting credits to her name. She has two award wins and two nominations, and included in these is the BAFTA Rising Star Award given in 2013. She was romantically involved with her 'The Brass Teapot' male lead Michael Angarano, and the pair lived together in Los Angeles for a time, but this relationship ended subsequently.

Juno Temple - a child Actress whose done good, a star on the rise, clearly in demand, and already with a varied body of work. So much achieved in your seventeen active years in front of the camera that the future shines brightly, and the movie going public will continue to watch your ascent with much interest. Happy Birthday to you Juno, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-