Birthday's to share this week : 22nd - 28th January 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Rosamund Pike does on 27th January - check out my tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 38, 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 22nd January

• Piper Laurie - Born 1932, turns 85 - Actress
• Linda Blair - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actress
• Diane Lane - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actress
• John Hurt - Born 1940, turns 77 - Actor
• Jim Jarmusch - Born 1953, turns 64 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Editor | Composer  

Monday 23rd January

• Shin'ichi (Sonny) Chiba - Born 1939, turns 78 - Actor | Producer | Director | Stuntman
• Rutger Hauer - Born 1944, turns 73 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Richard Dean Anderson - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor | Producer
• Richard Roxburgh - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Ewen Bremner - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actor | Producer  

Tuesday 24th January

• Adrian Edmondson - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Ed Helms - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Nastassja Kinski - Born 1961, turns 56 - Actress | Producer  

Wednesday 25th January

• Tobe Hooper - Born 1943, turns 74 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Composer
• Whit Stillman - Born 1952, turns 65 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Thursday 26th January

• Scott Glenn - Born 1941, turns 76 - Actor
• David Strathairn - Born 1949, turns 68 - Actor
• Ellen DeGeneres - Born 1958, turns 59 - Television Personality | Actress | Writer | Producer  

Friday 27th January

• Mimi Rogers - Born 1956, turns 61 - Actress | Producer
• Bridget Fonda - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actress
• Rosamund Pike - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actress
• James Cromwell - Born 1940, turns 77 - Actor | Producer
• Frank Miller - Born 1957, turns 60 - Writer | Producer | Director | Actor
• Alan Cumming - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Singer  

Saturday 28th January

• Alan Alda - Born 1936, turns 81 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Frank Darabont - Born 1959, turns 58 - Writer | Producer | Director | Actor
• Elijah Wood - Born 1981, turns 36 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Will Poulter - Born 1993, turns 24 - Actor | Writer  

Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike was born in London, England, to mother Caroline and father Julian Pike - both opera singers. Her father currently works at the Birmingham Conservatoire as Professor of Music and Head of Operatic Studies. Her parents work commitments saw the family travel extensively across Europe in Rosamund's earlier years up until when she was seven or so years of age. She won a scholarship to the  acclaimed independent Badminton Girls School, near Bristol, and while appearing in a production of 'Romeo and Juliet' as Juliet at the National Youth Theatre was noticed by a talent agent, who aided her in her early professional acting career aspirations. She eventually secured a place to study English Literature at Wadham College, at Oxford University from where she graduated. She took a year off to pursue her acting, gaining stage appearances in 'Skylight', 'All My Sons' and several Shakespeare plays. She graduated with a degree in 2001.

While still studying at Oxford she acted and Directed various stage plays, and from 1998 gained work on television. These included appearances on the Sci-Fi pilot for 'Seven Days' as a CIA Agent, the made for TV movie 'A Rather English Marriage', on three episodes of the BBC four part mini-series 'Wives and Daughters', on one episode of the Police procedural drama series 'Trial and Retribution' and then the two part 'Love in a Cold Climate'. In 2002 however, Pike gained her big screen debut playing Bond girl Miranda Frost, an undercover MI6 Agent and double agent to Pierce Brosnan's James Bond in Lee Tamahori's 'Die Another Day' - the twentieth film in the forty year running franchise. Whilst the film gained mixed critical reviews it did bring in US$432M and was the highest grossing Bond film of all-time, up to that point.

From here Pike has rarely been very far away from our big screens. In 2004 she starred in the Israeli film 'Promised Land', and then 'The Libertine' with Johnny Depp and John Malkovich. 2005 followed with Joe Wrights adaptation of 'Pride & Prejudice' with Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench and then a complete change of pace and genre with the Sci-Fi action horror offering 'Doom' with Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson. 'Fracture' came next in 2007 with Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling and David Strathairn, then 'Fugitive Pieces', 'An Education' with Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper and Emma Thompson and then a return to Sci-Fi action mystery with Jonathan Mostow's 'Surrogates' with Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, and James Cromwell seeing out the decade. In the meantime, there had been further small screen appearances too on 'Foyle's War', 'The Tower' and made for television film 'Freewill'.

As the decade turned over there was the satirical thriller 'Burning Palms', comedy drama 'Barney's Version' with Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman and Minnie Driver, the British film 'Made in Dagenham' with Bob Hoskins and then the Bond spoof 'Johnny English Reborn' with Rowan Atkinson which was a commercial success raking in US$160M from its US$45M budget outlay, but less of a critical one. 'The Big Year' with Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson came along in 2011 and bombed at the Box Office, unlike Pike's follow up film as Queen Andromeda in the epic adventure action fantasy 'Wrath of the Titans' with an all star cast featuring Sam Worthington, Bill Nighy, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Edgar Ramirez, Danny Huston and Toby Kebbel. That film made US$306M at the global Box Office from its US$150M budget but fared well less well critically too.

The first instalment in big screen adaptation of Lee Child's character 'Jack Reacher' was released in 2012 with Pike starring as defence lawyer Helen Rodin opposite Tom Cruise as former US Military Police Officer turned drifter and righter or wrongs Jack Reacher.  The film recovered US$219M from its US$60M outlay, and has so far spawned one sequel - last years 'Jack Reacher : Never Go Back'. 'The Devil You Know' and then Edgar Wright's end of the world Sci-Fi comedy 'The World's End' with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Pierce Brosnan, Eddie Marsan and Paddy Considine was released in 2013 to widespread critical acclaim. Pike teamed up with Brosnan for the third time in Nick Hornby's black comedy adaptation of 'A Long Way Down'. She also paired up with Simon Pegg again in 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' which also starred Toni Collette - her Co-Star from 'A Long Way Down'.

'What We Did On Our Holiday' was her third film offering of 2014, and closing out that year was David Fincher's acclaimed psychological thriller 'Gone Girl' in which Pike starred as Amy Dunne the missing and deranged wife opposite Ben Affleck's Nick Dunne. The film grossed US$370M from its US$61M budget, and garnered Pike her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination, as well as Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG, and AACTA nods. All up the film received 64 award wins and a further 171 nominations.



2015 saw 'Return to Sender' with 'A United Kingdom' released just before Christmas and in the US not until early February. Here Pike stars opposite David Oyelowo in this biographical romantic drama film set in the late '40's when Seretse Khama, the Prince of Bechuanaland meets and falls in love with Ruth Williams, a London office clerk, and the couple have to deal with the fall out from their frowned upon inter-racial, mixed colour union.




Since 2015 Pike has voiced the characters of Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and Captain Ridley O'Bannon in the remake of the cult '60's Gerry and Sylvia Anderson television series 'Thunderbirds' with this updated telling 'Thunderbirds Are Go' across two seasons so far and 39 episodes. Next up and due for release in 2017 are 'Hostiles', a Western with Christian Bale, Jesse Plemons, Stephen Lang and Ben Foster; 'High Wire Act', an action thriller with Jon Hamm; 'Entebbe' based on the 1976 terrorist hijacking of a passenger plane forced to land in Entebbe, Uganda, also starring Daniel Bruhl; and 'The Man with the Iron Heart' (formerly known as 'HHhH') with Mia Wasikowska, Jason Clarke and Jack O'Connell. Then due in 2018 and currently in pre-production is 'The Bends' another action thriller.

All up Pike has 42 Acting credits under her belt, excluding a number of stage acting roles, has one Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, SAG and AACTA nomination for her role in 'Gone Girl' and all told has so far accumulated 29 award wins and a total 51 other nominations. She was previously engaged to Director and Producer Joe Wright, and has since been in a steady relationship with mathematical researcher Robie Uniacke since 2009 and they have two sons together - Solo (born in 2012) and Atom (born in 2014).

Rosamund Pike - an English rose, never typecast and plays to her strengths, has been awarded as a Bond Girl and for 'Gone Girl', plays the cello and the piano, speaks both French and German, has the looks and increasingly the star power, and is very clearly in demand on stage, television and the big screen. Happy Birthday to you Rosamund, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SPLIT : Wednesday 18th January 2017.

I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening earlier this week of M.Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller, 'SPLIT' one week ahead of its Australian release on Thursday 26th January. Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Shyamalan this is described as a psychological horror film, but for me it's fits more in the thriller domain and certainly is edge of the seat stuff as the story progresses. The film costs US$10M to make and represents a return to form for the Writer/Director following 2015's successful found footage horror offering 'The Visit' which cost just US$5M and returned US$99M and was well received by Critics. In between time however, we had to endure 'After Earth' in 2013, 'The Last Airbender' in 2010, 'The Happening' in 2008, and 'Lady in the Water' in 2006. Before these of course we had his breakout films which were more highly regarded than his latter day offerings - 'The Sixth Sense' in 1999, 'Unbreakable' in 2000, 'Signs' in 2002 and 'The Village' in 2004. In 'Split' Shyamalan harks back to his early work with suspense, thrills, dark humour, gripping performances from his lead Actors and his trademark surprises that will keep you guessing as the credits roll.

The film kicks off in a fast food restaurant where a bunch of teenage girls are wrapping up celebrating a birthday party. Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula) are wanting to go home with Dad who refuses to leave outsider Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) alone without a lift home. He offers to drive her home as its only a short distance out of his way, and so in the car park he is loading up his boot in broad daylight and the three girls climb inside the car. A few moments pass, and into the drivers seat gets a stranger that none of them have seen before. Before you know it he sprays a chemical into each of the girls faces that instantly renders them unconscious. Dad is nowhere to be seen. The unknown captor drives off with the three girls.

Later we see the girls captor carrying them into a room that is to become their prison cell. It is bare brick, three made up camp beds, and a gleaming white en suite bathroom. There are no windows and a single heavily bolted wooden door. Through a crack in the door they can see that there is an adjacent room with just one entry door and they can hear a voice on the other side. The door unlocks and in walks Dennis (James McAvoy) - a well built stocky man, obviously strong, a little nervous, but with a commanding presence. He establishes some ground rules, and leaves. The girls meanwhile contemplate their fate - as Claire seeks out a plan to break out of her prison confines using the teenage karate lessons learned by Marcia to overcome their captor. Casey meanwhile seems content to wait and see what unwinds - to watch and observe until the time is right to take decisive action.

Meanwhile various characters come and go - all of them played out by James McAvoy who at heart is Kevin Wendell Crumb suffering from dissociative identity disorder whereby he frequently exhibits the personality traits of any one of 23 alternate personalities. As these characters manifest themselves they can be dangerous, monstrous, creepy, funny, harmless, young, old, male, female.

Whilst we don't see Kevin until close to the end when his state of mind is explained, we do meet a well to do English matriarch with sinister overtones (Patricia), a nine year old simpleton lad who likes dancing to Kanye West (Hedwig), an OCD caretaker who is fastidious about cleanliness and hygiene (Dennis), and a gay fashion designer (Barry). All of these personalities are played out expertly by McAvoy using items of clothing as his only props to suit the personality he is portraying whilst his facial expressions, mannerisms and voice convey the mood and tone of the character he is inhibiting.

Meanwhile, Claire hatches a plan to escape through the roof of their prison cell and does so by means of ventilation ducting just wide enough for her to scale through. She exits in a nearby room and is promptly recaptured, and for her troubles is locked up in a storeroom all alone, feeling desperately sorry for herself and fearing the worst. Then Marcia has a go when she and Casey are invited to the kitchen for dinner. She slams a wooden chair into the turned back of one of Kevin's female alternates and makes a bolt for it, only to be recaptured in a dead end room from which there is no exit. She too is banished to another empty storeroom to contemplate her fate.

While all of this is going on Kevin's more sinister personalities are increasingly requesting daily emergency sessions with his analyst Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) who has been treating Kevin for a number of years and has met just about all of his personalities. She specialises in the field of DID and has been chipping away to gain a full understanding of what makes each of his 23 personalities tick. It is here that we are introduced to the possibility of a 24th personality emerging - known as 'The Beast', that will dominate over the other 23, with his physical and mental strength. No one has yet seen The Beast in manifested form, but the other personalities know that he is coming, and when he does . . .

In micro-flashbacks too we catch short little bursts of what made Casey the young woman she is today. On hunting trips aged five or six when Casey (Izzie Coffey) first learned to shoot a shotgun and kill a deer under the tutelage of her father and Uncle, through to her fathers premature death and her being raised by her abusive Uncle. These life lessons as young as she is, have taught her to be patient, to give nothing away, and to play along with her captor gaining what little confidence and trust she can along the away. And in the end, it pays off as she emerges the heroine of the piece while her two friends succumb.

Dr. Fletcher becomes increasingly alarmed by Kevin's demands for sessions on a now daily basis by sending multiple e-mails at all hours of the day and night. She keeps digging away at times uncertain of which character she is addressing, but always placating the personality with kind words, generous compliments, and her own engaging character. All the while the tension mounts between them, only adding to the suspicion between the two parties.

Eventually 'The Beast' manifests itself and it is everything and more that Kevin and his various personalities had imagined. Domineering, powerful, almost superhuman, and definitely to be feared. In the final analysis there are some gruesome casualties along the way, but Casey survives with the help of a shotgun and some carefully aimed shots from the relatively safe confines of a locked cage. Whilst she survives, so does The Beast who we see treating his own wounds in some derelict home having escaped his own underground lair. He morphs from one personality to another having conversations with himself about the state of his shot up body, and what to do next.

As Casey is rescued we see the exact location above ground where Kevin housed his deep underground quarters in which he lived, held his prisoners captive and how he was able to move about relatively easily. There is a metaphor here for the behaviours exhibited by some of Kevin's personalities too. In a final scene where breaking news reveals the ordeal that Casey went through and the casualties of that experience, we cut to a diner and the dialogue between two patrons harks back to an earlier film where the antagonist is committed to an institution for the criminally insane, drawing comparisons between that character and the one of Kevin Wendell Crumb.

McAvoy carries this film with his seamless portrayal of a myriad of dangerous, unhinged, twisted personalities easily showcasing his awards worthy talents. Here too the storytelling and Direction of Shyamalan marks his welcome comeback with an original and compelling story, and those trademarks we have come to expect from his earlier works especially. See this on the big screen for the larger than life opening credits sequence, and the expert personalities adopted by each of McAvoy's alternate persona's - this film belongs to him, and he clearly relished the multiple characters the role presented him with.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 19th January 2017.

Last week I reported on the recent Golden Globe Awards that were held on 8th January. Two days before that however, on 6th January at the historic Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, the 6th International AACTA Awards (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) were held. These awards, which follow up Decembers Australian only awards, recognise international film achievement regardless of country or origin, in seven distinct categories. Hosted by Australian Actor Daniel MacPherson, and kicking off 2017's awards season, the star studded event played out with the eventual winners and grinners from those nominated a month earlier, being as follows :-

* Best Film : 'LA LA LAND',
* Best Direction : MEL GIBSON for 'Hacksaw Ridge',
* Best Actor : CASEY AFFLECK for 'Manchester By The Sea' (released in Australia on 2nd February).
* Best Actress : EMMA STONE for 'La La Land',
* Best Supporting Actor : DEV PATEL for 'Lion' (released in Australia today, see below),
* Best Supporting Actress : NICOLE KIDMAN for 'Lion' (released in Australia today, see below),
* Best Screenplay : KENNETH LONERGAN for 'Manchester By The Sea' (released in Australia on 2nd February).

Turning attention to this weeks latest release films, we have just two to tease you out on a hot Summer's day or night with some air conditioned relief in a cinema of your choosing. We launch with the third instalment in this high octane extreme adventure franchise that sees a heavily tattooed thrill seeking rogue athletic dude come back to life and save the planet from a potential weapon of worldwide destruction and a few crooked governments along the way. Hold on tight! Then we slow down the pace somewhat about the true story of one man's journey to trace his real family back in India from the comfort, security and love of his adopted Australian home. Take your Kleenex!

As always, your thoughts, opinions and observations are welcomed by your fellow readers here at Odeon Online so feel free to record a relevant, pertinent and unbiased Comment below this or any other Post when you have sat through your film of choice in the week ahead. We look forward to hearing from you, and in the interim, enjoy your movie going experience.

'xXx : THE RETURN OF XANDER CAGE' (Rated M) - the 'xXx' franchise of films is hardly going to go down in history as the most successful, most groundbreaking, most acclaimed series of action movies to grace our screens, having grossed just $349M from the first two instalments off the back of a US$157M combined production budget. The 2002 launch film 'xXx' starred Vin Diesel as our thrill seeking extreme sports stuntman and rebel athlete Xander Cage who becomes a reluctant spy for the National Security Agency tasked with hunting down a bunch of bad-ass Ruskies. That film was Directed by Rob Cohen and grossed US$275M from its US$70M budget and received generally favourable reviews. The 2005 follow up however, was another story completely. Directed by Lee Tamahori for US$87M 'xXx : The State of the Union' starred this time around Ice Cube as XXX Agent Darius Stone, as Diesel had a scheduling conflict with another movie he was committed to at the time. That film grossed just US$71M and was received poorly by critics. Now in 2017 Xander Cage is back even though he was killed off to explain his absence from the second film. Going back as far 2006 Diesel stated that he would return as our titular hero with a look and feel more in keeping with his successful first instalment. It's taken eleven years to bring that dream to our cinemas and here we have it, and there is talk already of Diesel reprising his role for a fourth film which could into production as early as mid-year this year.

This time Directed by D.J.Caruso, Co-Produced by Vin Diesel and seeing a return to form as the risen from the dead Xander Cage, our extreme athlete comes out of self imposed exile recruited by the CIA to track down a weapon which can control all of the worlds military satellites. Known as Pandora's Box, in the hands of one Xiang (Donnie Yen), this weapon could have dire consequences on the world as we know it. And so Xander Cage recruits a crack team of like minded thrill seekers all with a particular set of skills to aid him in his quest to bring down Xiang. Conspiracy and corruption will ensue as Cage and his cohorts get wrapped up in it at the highest levels of world governments, including their own. Seeing Samuel L. Jackson return for the third time to the franchise as NSA Agent Augustus Eugene Gibbons, with Toni Collette, Ruby Rose and Tony Jaa amongst others you can be sure of high octane action, mind boggling stunts, explosive set pieces and a thumping sound track, with Cage looking positively 'dope' in the process!

'LION' (Rated PG) - this drama film Directed by first time Garth Davis is based on the autobiographical book 'A Long Way Home' by Saroo Brierley and tell the story of his life as played out by Sunny Pawar as the young Saroo back home in India, and Dev Patel as the older Saroo at home in Australia. Already highly acclaimed by critics the world over, the film was made for just US$12M and has so far grossed US$19M plus twenty award wins and a further 62 nominations including the yet to be announced winners for this years BAFTA's, as well as this years yet to be released Academy Award nominee announcements. The story here centres around five year old Saroo who unwittingly boards a train for Calcutta and gets off 1600 kilometres from home, in a strange land and ends up in an orphanage. Some time later he learns that he had been adopted by Sue and John Brierley (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham respectively) in Tasmania, Australia. Fast track two decades and Saroo moves to Melbourne to study hospitality management, and falls in with a group who persuade him to track down his real family back in India using Google Earth. This is his story. Take a box of tissues for this weepie tale of loss, hope, belonging and identity.

With just two new filmic offerings coming to a big screen near you each giving us something different, together with those still out on general release, you have ample opportunity to catch a movie of choice in the run up to the end of the (Australian) school summer holidays. Then, share your thoughts with us here. In the meantime, I'll see you somewhere, sometime in the week ahead at the Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 15th - 21st January 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Damien Chazelle does on 19th January - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 32, 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 15th January

• Mario Van Peebles - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• James Nesbitt - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor
• Ryan Corr - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actor  

Monday 16th January

• John Carpenter - Born 1948, turns 69 - Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Composer | Songwriter | Musician
• Debbie Allen - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actress | Producer | Director | Choreographer | Singer | Songwriter  

Tuesday 17th January

• Zooey Deschanel - Born 1980, turns 37 - Actress | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• James Earl Jones - Born 1931, turns 86 - Actor
• Kevin Reynolds - Born 1952, turns 65 - Director | Writer
• Brian Helgeland - Born 1961, turns 56 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Jim Carrey - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Naveen Andrews - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor
• Leigh Whannell - Born 1977, turns 40 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor  

Wednesday 18th January

• John Boorman - Born 1933, turns 84 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Kevin Costner - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Mark Rylance - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor
• David Ayer - Born 1968, turns 49 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Dave Bautista - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Producer
• Jason Segel - Born 1980, turns 37 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter  

Thursday 19th January

• Antoine Fuqua - Born 1966, turns 51 - Director | Producer
• Nash Edgerton - Born 1973, turns 44 - Stuntman | Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Damien Chazelle - Born 1985, turns 32 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Friday 20th January

• Tom Baker - Born 1934, turns 83 - Actor
• David Lynch - Born 1946, turns 71 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Editor | Composer | Singer | Songwriter
• Skeet Ulrich - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor
• Omar Sy - Born 1978, turns 39 - Actor | Producer | Writer  

Saturday 21st January

• Luke Grimes - Born 1984, turns 33 - Actor
• Geena Davis - Born 1956, turns 61 - Actress | Producer

Damien Sayre Chazelle was born in Providence, Rhode Island to mother Celia Martin, a writer and Professor of History at The College of New Jersey, and father Bernard Chazelle, a Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. He has a sister Anna, who is an actress and circus performer. He attended the comprehensive public Princeton High School in New Jersey where film making was a keen interest for him, but he got sidetracked by the possibility of a music career as a jazz drummer which was to become the inspiration for his breakout film 'Whiplash' courtesy of an intense music teacher. He knew though that he never had the talent to make it big musically, so instead he reverted back to his first love and studied film making in the Visual and Environmental Studies Department at Harvard University from where he graduated in 2007.

Chazelle's big screen debut came in 2009 with the jazz musical film 'Guy and Medeline on a Park Bench' which he Directed, Co-Produced, Wrote, Co-Edited and acted as Cinematographer on. The film performed very well critically, and was widely shown around the worldwide festival circuit where it picked up a handful of awards and nominations. The film features a cast of non-professional actors, but accomplished musicians nonetheless. Chazelle also provide the lyrics for the films original music score.

In 2013 Chazelle wrote and Directed an eighteen minute short film called 'Whiplash' which was to be the pre-cursor for his highly acclaimed feature film of the same name released in 2014. Telling the story of the relationship between an ambitious jazz student, played by Miles Teller and his abusive domineering music teacher played by J.K.Simmons, the film went on to win three Academy Awards, one Golden Globe, three BAFTA's and a SAG award amongst its haul of 91 wins in total and a further 135 nominations. The film cost just US$3.5M to make and raked in US$49M at the Box Office.

Also in 2013 Chazelle took Writer credits on the supernatural horror drama film 'The Last Exorcism Part II', and 'Grand Piano' an English language Spanish film telling the story of a pianist making a comeback performance under threat from a sniper who has targeted him for death if he dare play one wrong note. The film starred Elijah Wood and John Cusack, and received largely favourable Reviews. In 2016 Chazelle also Co-Wrote the Sci-Fi psychological thriller '10, Cloverfield Lane' which took US$109M at the Box Office from its US$15M production budget and again garnered generally positive Reviews.

This gave way to the recently released 'La La Land' which has received universal critical acclaim. This romantic musical comedy drama film was Written and Directed by Chazelle, made for US$30M and has so far grossed US$91M, and has picked up 112 award wins including a history making seven Golden Globe wins, and 180 nominations including eleven BAFTA nods yet to be announced and excluding the yet be announced Academy Award nominations also. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in the two lead roles, with John Legend, J.K.Simmons and Rosemary DeWitt amongst others supporting. 

Next up for Chazelle is 'First Man' which will be Directed by Chazelle, teaming up with Ryan Gosling again in the lead role as Neil Armstrong in this biopic of the first man on the Moon based on the best selling book by James Hansen. All up Chazelle has seven Writer credits to his name, five as Director, three as Producer and two for Soundtrack lyrics. He has amassed 46 award wins and a further 104 nominations excluding this years Academy Award nominations for 'La La Land' which are still to be announced at the time of writing. Chazelle was married for four years to Writer, Producer and Director Jasmine McGlade from 2010 to 2014.

Damien Chazelle - the current toast of Hollywood and the Darling of Tinsel Town, riding the crest of a wave of success that started in no small way with a debut feature and is still gaining momentum. At just seven years in the movie business you've come a long way in a short period of time - congratulations on your achievements and recent awards success, and Happy Birthday to you Damien from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

PASSENGERS : Tuesday 10th January 2017.

'PASSENGERS' which I saw this week is from Norwegian film Director Morten Tyldum who previously brought us 2014's 'The Imitation Game'. Here he Directs this Sci-Fi adventure offering set in deep space. Made for US$110M and released in the US just before Christmas, the film has so far made US$181M and has seemingly fared less well with critics whose general response has been mixed at best, than it has with the movie going public. Having read the negative press, I was pleasantly surprised by the film, and feel it fares better than the critics give it credit for.


The story here takes place during some undisclosed future date aboard the starship 'Avalon', a state of the art vessel transporting 5,000 Earth inhabitants and some 250 crew to colonise a far away planet called Homestead II. That planet is so far away from Earth that the journey takes 120 years, and those 'passengers' and crew are in hibernation pods for the entirety of the journey, with the super advanced spacecraft on autopilot. The intention is that the passengers will awaken four months before arrival at Homestead II, and the crew one month before them, in order for everyone to assimilate to each other, their new surroundings, the prospect of life in a galaxy far far away, to learn new skills and to prepare for a fresh start at life. There is no going back.

Early on we see Avalon pass through a meteor cloud, and using its defensive shield manages to get through largely unscathed until we see a huge chunk of space rock the size of a football stadium come into view and headed on a collision course. It impacts and is deflected, but the jolt to the ships infrastructure causes a malfunction in one hibernation pod - that of mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) who awakens thinking that he has arrived at Homestead II already, and the requisite 120 years has passed. After a day or two however, he comes to realise that nothing could be further from the truth, largely by the absence of anyone else. He searches through the mighty Avalon looking for others, interacting with various holographic beings passing out information, instructions and intelligence and learns too that the ship left earth only thirty years ago, and its destination is still ninety years away. How is this possible?

Resigned to his fate, Preston goes about his daily routines using all the facilities available to the passengers once they have woken up from their hibernation - restaurants, cinema, basketball gym, and the bar where he is able to interact with mechanical robot bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen) for some kind of companionship.

He also investigates the ships every corner to ascertain what he is dealing with, what resources are available and if there is a means of re-hibernation, but there is not. However, some areas are beyond his ability to access given that he is a lowly mechanical engineer who gained free passage to Homestead II on account of his necessary skills. One such area that 'is beyond his pay grade' is the main deck where the ships controls and diagnostic systems are housed, which he tries fruitlessly to access for a prolonged period, but to no avail.

Contemplating suicide after traipsing around the ship all on his lonesome for many months, he happens upon the hibernation pod of Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence). He reads her digital profile and we learn she is a journalist, a writer, her family history, and Preston instantly becomes infatuated by her. After some soul searching and deliberation over many weeks he decides to wake up Aurora, but keep the truth from her about how her pod opened, other than it was another malfunction.

Initially Lane goes through the same emotions that Preston did over a year ago now, seeking ways to re-hibernate, or turn the ship around, but when she can see that everything she suggests has already been attempted by him, she resigns herself to her fate. In time the two fall for each other and become lovers. She starts writing a book, and the pair take full advantage of their seclusion, their surroundings and everything they have available to them.

This carries on for a year, with the two making the most of their lives abroad the Avalon, until Arthur inadvertently lets out that it is the anniversary of Preston waking up Lane. At first Lane cannot believe what she is hearing, and then her anger turns physical and emotional as she deliberately distances herself from Preston, accusing him of what is tantamount to murder.

Shortly after this as Preston is trying to explain himself over the Avalon's PA system, they hear the voice of Chief Deck Officer Gus Mancuso (Laurence Fishburn) who has been woken by another pod malfunction. Mancuso has higher authority and so gains them access to the main deck which earlier Preston had spent tireless hours trying to access. Using the ships diagnostic systems they learn of multiple failures in the ships infrastructure and systems, which if not repaired will have catastrophic effects. They learn that the damage was done two years ago during the meteor storm that initially woke up Preston, and so now it becomes a race against time to locate the damage and effect repairs. Mancuso meanwhile is in ill health and in the ships infirmary in the Autodoc (an automated medical diagnostics and treatment pod) they learn that he has just hours to live thanks to the manner in which his hibernation pod was opened and what he was exposed to in the process. Before he dies, he hands over his ID wrist band giving the pair unrestricted access to all areas.

As the ships systems increasingly fail putting at risk over five thousand souls, so the hunt is on for the damage. They locate several holes in the ships hull that caused damage to the computer that administers the ships reactor. Knowing that there are spare parts on the ship for every conceivable necessity, Preston retrieves a new computer bank to replace the damaged one. In doing so however, it causes further damage to the reactor. Preston realises that the fusion reactor needs to be vented, but this cannot be done from the inside due to damaged systems infrastructure, and so he needs to do so from outside the ship. Lane is reluctant to let him go knowing that she may never see him again, and she couldn't abide that thought despite her previous feelings of being cheated out of her future life.

With Lane inside and Preston outside the ship but in constant communication with each other, the reactor is successfully vented, but in the process he is ejected by the blast with such a force that it snaps his tether causing him to drift helplessly. With his spacesuit also damaged he is loosing oxygen rapidly and the temperature inside his suit begins to plummet. He apologies to Lane and bids his farewell. Not having any of it, Lane dons a spacesuit and ventures out to retrieve her man, eventually doing so. She slams him into the Autodoc where he is pronounced dead on arrival. Using the diagnostics and treatment functions she throws everything at Preston to revive him.

Eighty-eight years later the crew of the Avalon awaken as they approach Homestead II. Upon opening the doors to the main concourse area, Captain Norris (Andy Garcia) is greeted with a landscape of lush green vegetation, tall trees, and a small wooden house that Preston promised he would build Lane if they were together on Homestead II. Lane completed writing her book revealing that she elected to stay with Preston and finish writing her story of adventure and love aboard the Avalon where the two of them lived happily until they died.

There are nods aplenty to other films, including '2001:A Space Odyssey', 'Prometheus', 'The Martian', 'Gravity' and 'Titanic', and like all of these films 'Passengers' does not disappoint on the visuals which are stunning and expertly realised. With a small handful too of individuals battling against the odds; a story that you can relate to; and a chemistry between the two leads that make you believe, this is ultimately a love story wrapped up in a disaster epic where loss and despair give way to love and hope. I found Preston just a little too worldly wise as a lowly mechanical engineer who is able to craft metal trinkets, reprogramme robots, sidestep complex computer systems, design an eco system, and know how reactor fusion works amongst other things to be just a little too convenient and a little to MacGuiver esque. Preston's motives for waking up Lane are at the core of the film, and it is a matter for debate as to what you would do confronted with a lifetime of no other human contact, and ultimately her reaction and reconciliation to this is equally questionable. I enjoyed 'Passengers' much more than I thought I would, and I think you will too. It is worth seeing on the big screen for all the spectacle, complexity and the enormity of a sterile, untarnished brand spanking new floating mega shopping mall and entertainment complex hurtling through space on its 120 year journey to go boldly where no man has gone before!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-