Search Results

(Release Info London schedule; October 20th, 2018, Cineworld, 5 - 6 Leicester Square, 20:45) "The Hate U Give" Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is constantly switching between two worlds; the poor, mostly black, neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white, prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil (Algee Smith) at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right.   Sixteen-year old Starr Carter lives in 'Garden Heights', a working-class community with her close-knit family. Her father, Maverick (Russell Hornsby), is a reformed ex-gang member who grew up in 'Garden Heights' and once served time in prison. Now, a family man and valued member of the community, Maverick owns  the community grocery store. Starr’s mother, Lisa (Regina Hall), a nurse, was also reared in 'Garden Heights', in a family that aspired more for its children through education, just as she does for her own. Half-brother Seven (Lamar Johnson) and younger brother Sekani (TJ Wright) complete the family. Dismayed by the academic achievements of schools in their community, and wanting to give their children better opportunities, Lisa and Maverick enroll Starr and her siblings in 'Williamson Prep School', a predominantly white school about forty minutes away. In 'Garden Heights', Starr is 'Starr Version One'. She's comfortable speaking the slang vernacular of her community, enjoys hip hop without feeling self-conscious, but fears being seen as acting white. At 'Williamson', Starr becomes 'Starr Version Two'. There, she's constantly on guard not to appear or act too hood. She refrains from speaking slang, even if the white kids do, her two best friends Hailey (Sabrina Carpenter) and Maya (Megan Lawless) are not black, and her boyfriend, Chris (K.J. Apa) is white. Everything changes when Starr witnesses the shooting death of her childhood best friend, Khalil at the hands of a police officer during a traffic stop. As the sole witness, Starr must choose between speaking up for Khalil, or remaining silent. Telling the truth could also endanger herself and her family by implicating King (Anthony Mackie), 'Garden Heights' drug lord who Khalil worked for. And, she worries about 'The Williamson Community' connecting her to Khalil’s death, and what they will think. As her community cries out for justice for Khalil, and word spreads about Starr’s involvement, Starr finds herself navigating an increasingly volatile environment. Starr begins a journey of self-discovery, one that will reveal powerful truths and realizations about herself and, where her true community lies.   The script opens with Starr’s father, Maverick giving his children 'The Talk', an instructional time-bound lesson black parents use to protect their children from the danger police can pose to their safety. The key message is know your rights. Maverick overcame his life as a drug dealer, gang member and convict to become a loving family man and a positive presence in the community. Mav prepares his children for the world by teaching them about their worth, and their rights. He's both protective and supportiv. He's very loving and sweet to his daughter, but he's also stern because he realizes she has the potential for greatness, and he expects nothing less. You’re seeing a black father have the conversation to make sure that his kids are safe. That's what's going to be good about this movie; to allow people to understand that some people’s circumstance and environments are not the same as yours. Anything can happen when your child leaves the house. It’s your responsibility as a parent to have that talk. Rehearsing the opening scene is a particularly emotional and painful experience. Audiences are going to bear witness to a father saying to his children; 'you better heed what I’m telling you because it can save your life'. Code switching can be defined as the practice of changing one’s behavior to suit different environments. For 'The African American Community', code switching is yet another survival tactic that often takes an emotional toll. "The Hate U Give" is about Starr’s awakening, triggered by Khalil’s tragic death. Tragedy forces Starr to realize who she's meant to be. This is what the story becomes, it’s about her journey of being a full person. Being the sole witness to Khalil’s death, Starr is thrust into a situation that seems insurmountable. It challenges her whole life, it challenges her whole perspective, it challenges her identity, as she has to figure out if she has the strength to speak up for him and what she believes in. It takes time for her to reach a place of strength where she feels comfortable to use her voice. But it's because she thinks deeply about her actions, and her priorities are her family, her friends and her community. It's also there that she finds her strength and resolve. The early lessons from Mav has given her a solid foundation from which to start her journey of self-discovery, to recite 'The Black Panther Ten Points Program', and about 'Malcolm X', Huey Newton and Martin Luther King, and so Starr has an understanding of who she's within the historical context of America. Starr struggles to reconcile her life in 'Garden Heights' with her life in 'Williamson'. Lawyer and community activist, April Ofrah (Issa Rae), also plays a pivotal role in the final phase of Starr’s growth. April wants justice and is willing to go to the Carter home and ask them to put Starr on television, and persuade her to testify for the grand jury. The bravery that requires on both ends is admirable. Initially suspicious of April’s motives, Starr grows to appreciate what's being offered. April recognizes how important Starr's voice is, and pushes Starr to utilize it as best she can. It's not until Starr realizes that she does need to use her voice that April and Starr develop a camaraderie, and April gives Starr the tools she needs in order to speak. The protest scene is the culmination of the journey Starr takes in finding her voice. It's the moment where Starr stands up for what she believes in, and stands in the authenticity of where she comes from. Starr’s mother, Lisa is someone who showed early promise before it was derailed by an unplanned pregnancy. Now, she's a devoted parent who wants to create a better future for her children. She doesn’t want Starr to make the same mistakes she did, or for her sons to get involved in the lifestyle Maverick had. Lisa wants her children to break the cycle that often sabotages the futures of children from communities like 'Garden Heights'.  And so, she and Maverick make the financial sacrifice to send them to 'Williamson'. It’s about trying to put them in the environment where they've the best opportunity to go to college, and so they've a fighting chance in the world with other kids who've access to more information and  better schooling. Like Starr, Seven is also split between two worlds; the loving family of the Carter household, and the chaotic home Iesha shares with King, the local drug lord. Seven benefits from living with Maverick and Lisa; he becomes the first to break the cycle by graduating 'Williamson' and eligible for college, by the end of the film. The Carter parents are a positive model of black parenting.  Mav and Lisa instill such morals into their children. It's awesome to see Mav's past and see where he comes from, where he's now and, the type of father that he's. The damages we do to one another gets passed on from generation to generation.  If we don’t stop hurting one another, future generations are going to have the same problems. This movie is a metaphor for that. Sekani embodies this idea in the film. He's the infant Tupac is talking about. He sees the police take down his dad. He’s seeing gang-members shoot to scare Starr from going to the grand jury. The sequence with Sekani and the gun gets to the heart of the issue. Carlos (Common), Starr’s uncle is a black police officer, which within this story becomes a real challenge, as it must be for some real-life black police officers who work in the community. He offers Starr a police’s perspective on Khalil’s death and asks her to trust the system. However, Carlos is forced to admit some hard truths himself about his own bias. Carlos believes that he’s taught a certain amount of things about how the police conduct themselves but also he admits himself in one particular scene in the movie, that he sees race in the wrong way as well. Through Carlos character the film explores what happens when we've internalized racism, and how we police ourselves and contribute to bias.  King is 'Garden Heights’ resident drug lord. He and Mav were childhood buddies. They're responsible for the drug game in the neighborhood before they got pinched. Mav goes to prison. King did what he was supposed to do to make their relationship right, but after Mav got out, he becomes his own man and King stays in the game. That’s where the tension comes in. King and his boys are telling Starr to stay quiet because snitches get stitches. But this little girl has more strength than any man or adult in the community because she stood up and spoke out. Khalil is not in the movie for long and, within that time, you've to fall in love with him and feel Starr falling in love. You also have to realize that while he has a lot of responsibility taking care of his mom and his grandma, that he's still a kid. Khalil is central to the story because not only does he trigger Starr’s emotional and political growth, his death also causes her friends to realize that they may not be speaking up for injustice as much as they could be. His tragic death allows Starr to discover her true allies. Chris, Starr's boyfriend, is someone who has never really looked at race because he comes from an upper-class, very rich family. He goes to private school in 'Williamson'. He’s dating a young 'African American' woman, but he doesn’t know what it’s like for her to grow up with the racism, and living in the inner city. Despite the difference in their backgrounds, Chris is willing to try and bridge the gap. Chris ends up getting to know Starr when she opens up her world to her. At the start he didn’t really understand racism. He understood it in an intellectual way, but Starr opened his eyes. The Carter family faces a lot of challenges, but, what remains through all of that's the deepest sense of love, of friendship, of strength found in each other.  In the early months of 2016, publishing houses found themselves in a bidding war for the unpublished manuscript of first-time author, Angie Thomas. Entitled "The Hate U Give", the story focused on Starr Carter, sole witness to the death of her childhood friend at the hands of a police officer. The coming of age story features an 'African American' teenager who lives in the working-class community of 'Garden Heights', but who travels 45 minutes to attend a private prep school in the prosperous community of 'Williamson'. The shooting death of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California on January 1, 2009 at the hands of a 'BART' police officer made headlines all across the country. Although Grant’s death took place hundreds of miles away, it triggers conversations in Starr’s dominantly black neighborhood and her majority white private prep school. The themes around 'The African American' family dynamic, self-identity and being black are particularly strong and not something explored a lot in film. Thie film explore a fresh take on these issues from a young person’s perspective. Starr and Khalil have to deal with a situation much like Oscar’s. It's about a individual who's searching for identity, who finds her voice and finds out who she becomes, against a background of police brutality and racism. It's critically important to understand Starr’s journey from a young girl who witnessed a horrible tragedy to a young woman willing to stand up for the things she believes in. “The Hate U Give" connects the fictional world of the movie to the long line of high profile police shootings of young black people that have sparked protests and gained national attention across the US in recent years. The film creates a dialogue about important issues about race, social justice, and identity in order to move towards peace and chang. We've to continue the dialogue about our differences. We all have biases within us. When you've a one-dimensional, self-centered approach to life, it does not allow you to understand how your actions and words can impact others. The film encourages people to have more empathy in everything we say and do. It’s important to be yourself, to stand up, to not be afraid to speak the truth and be heard. Your voice can make a difference. Maybe not at that exact moment, but down the line, and that’s what "The Hate U Give" stands for.

https://vimeo.com/289199600

(Release Info London schedule; June 22nd, 2018, Curzon Victoria, 13:30) "In The Fade" Out of nowhere, Katja's (Diane Kruger) life falls apart when her husband Nuri (Numan Acar) and little son Rocco (Rafael Santana) are killed in a bomb attack. Her friends and family try to give her the support she needs, and Katja somehow manages to make it through the funeral. But the mind numbing search for the perpetrators and reasons behind the senseless killing complicate Katja's painful mourning, opening wounds and doubts. Danilo Fava (Denis Moschitto), a lawyer and Nuri's best friend, represents Katja in the eventual trial against the two suspects; a young couple from the neo-Nazi scene. The trial pushes Katja to the edge, but there's simply no alternative for her, she wants justice. This film is inspired by the 'NSU' murders in 2011. 'The German Neo-Nazi' group 'National Socialist Underground' perpetrated a series of xenophobe murders between 2000 and 2007 throughout Germany. The big scandal was that the police focused their investigation on people within the community of the victims, blaming drug or gambling connections. Police pressure was so intense that even the press and the community themselves began to have similar suspicions. The film is broken into three parts. The first establishes Katja’s relationship with her family and takes us through the bombing. The second us into the courtroom where the perpetrators of the bombing stand trial for their crimes. The third follows Katja as she decides what to do in the wake of the trial. The courtroom scenes are some of the best in recent memory. Danilo Fava puts in a rock solid turn Katja’s lawyer. The scenes in which he's debating the defense are exciting, and it’s just as interesting to watch him work the system on both strategic and methodical levels as it's to study the differences between a German trial and an American one. The slight alterations of format allow room for all the high energy courtroom bickering that procedural fans know and love, but with a decidedly unique flavor afforded to it by it's foreignness. For example, the way that the lawyers punctuate their ranting knowledge-drops with a loaded thank you evokes things like "Philadelphia" and "A Time Fo Kill", but in a way never before seen, much like your honor which is dramatized by litigants to great effect. The third act brings us into what should be a typical revenge tale, and in a lot of ways it's, but "In the Fade" is less concerned with the catharsis of vengeance than it's the ethical questions that revenge naturally raises. Katja has her own morality, her own definition of justice. In that way, Katja embodies something dormant inside of us that should always remain dormant. This film is about that universal feeling of grief and it's many layers. Here’s hoping this gem gets a wide release.

(London, BFI Southbank, 0 Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XT, United Kingdom, Friday 12 August 2022 18:15, NFT1) "My Old School" In 1990s Scotland, Brandon Lee (Alan Cummings) enrolled at a well-heeled school in Glasgow. The events that followed became the stuff of legend. He seems a little different from the other 16-year-olds. A little wiser, a little more worldly perhaps and more in need of a shave. He eventually became one of the cool kids with a very promising future. Then people started to discover that Brandon was not who they thought he was. Brandon Lee said his mother had been an opera singer, and that she had traveled the world with him until she died in a car crash. The other school kids in the posh Glasgow suburb took a while to get used to him, but little by little, he won everyone over. He defended the weak, was music-savvy, astounded the teachers with his knowledge, and even starred in the school play(and kissed a girl. But then something about his story didn’t add up anymore, and his stunned teachers and fellow schoolboys could not understand how they had missed it. What followed over the next two years would become the stuff of legend. Brandon had been privately tutored in Canada while he accompanied his mother, an opera diva, on tour before her tragic death. The preternaturally bright scholar surprised teachers by blazing toward his goal of entering medical school, displaying a wealth of knowledge beyond his years. Brandon found friends despite his initial awkwardness. He took bullied school kids under his wing, introduced classmates to seminal retro bands, and even starred in the school's production of South Pacific. The documentary finally reveals the truth behind the story. Featuring interviews with old classmates and teachers, together the film tells how a 32-year-old man tricked his way into the school, and, for the first time, how Brandon Lee’s true identity was revealed. This is a Scottish tale, one that gripped the entire nation when it first broke back in the 1990s, and this documentary retells it from the point of view of the pupils and teachers it all happened to! The teaching staff includes Clare Grogan, and US Billboard chart-topping singer of ‘To Sir With Love’, Lulu. And just like in that movie classic of 1967, Lulu sings the title song, the Steely Dan hit ‘My Old School’. The film looks at one of the strangest and most notorious imposter cases of modern times, which becomes more sensational with every detail revealed. You can fool most of the people, most of the time. The wildly entertaining, jaw-dropping documentary hybrid tells the outrageous story of Scotland’s Great Pretender. Returning to his old school, the film captures the memories of fellow pupils who recall their time with Brandon and the impact he made. Even they didn’t realise the half of it. The film becomes a voyage of discovery through the stories of class 5C. Animated flashback scenes with cartoon characters evoke high school life from 25 years ago. The film also nods to the animation styles of the 1970’s. This is a story that will remind you of your schooldays, who lived through this extraordinary deception and have never forgotten it. written by Gregory Mann

Hi there, Fantastic! You are interested in submitting a Vlog film review to our website. Simply head over to YouTube or Vimeo and upload your video, then head back to this link - https://www.ukfilmreview.co.uk/forum/vlog-film-reviews Create new post, give it a title that includes the film name. In the body of the post, click the little film camera icon and add the URL from your video. It should then display in the post and you can publish. Feel free to write some details in the post about the film too. Tips for Vlog film reviews - Aim for 5-10 mins max per vlog film review - Speak clearly and slowly (very easy to speak fast when recording) - If you are technically savvy, spruce up the video with effects and assets from the film (make sure you have permission to use these) - Try to record somewhere quiet, preferably with a plain background - Static camerawork is preferred, if you are holding your phone it will likely be shakey and audiences may get sea sick - If you get stuck, or need help, send us a message through Facebook or Twitter.

FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL UK 2017 Golden Years screening as part of the FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL 2017 London’s Regent Street Cinema to host nine film screenings as part of the French Film Festival UK 2017 and will take place between 4-10 December The biggest explosion of French and francophone cinema in the UK will hit cinemas in November as part of a major expansion of the French Film Festival UK, which is celebrating its 25th year. MONDAY 4TH DECEMBER ISMAEL’S GHOSTS Just before he is about to start shooting his new film, a filmmaker’s life is turned upside down when a woman he had loved and who had disappeared, reappears. Directed by Arnaud Desplechin and starring Mathieu Amalric, Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Louis Garrel. CORNICHE KENNEDY Sensual, edgy, relentlessly honest and tender, Corniche Kennedy, directed by Dominique Cabrera, focusses on young people, their lives, dreams, and relationships. Taken from the eponymous novel by Maylis de Kerangal, Cabrera’s film is set in Marseilles. The title refers to the Corniche du Président-John-Fitzgerald-Kennedy, a boulevard along the coast, and at its heart is a group of contemporary teens who defy the laws of gravity by plunging into the water from a height. WEDNESDAY 6 DECEMBER GOLDEN YEARS A deserter disguises himself as a woman to escape the fields of battle during the First World War in veteran André Techiné’s new film, adapted from Fabrice Virgili and Daniele Voldman’s non-fiction book The Flapper and the Killer / La garconne et l’assassin. It is the story of Paul and Louise Grappe, a young couple living their golden years before the Great War breaks out. THE FIREMAN With a summer heatwave raging in the south of France the fire brigade have their work out dealing with outbreaks of fires all over the terrain, some of them the deliberate work of criminal gangs. Pierre Jolivet examines how the firemen cope in the face of overwhelming odds, not least because of internal conflicts between two of the officers in charge. An uncanny prelude to the blazes that caused such devastation this year on the Côte d’Azur. FRIDAY 8 DECEMBER MERCENARY The odyssey of Soane, a young Polynesian, who leaves everything behind to try his luck in France as a rugby player. French, although not considered such, Soane has a thirst for freedom, but struggles to get the recognition that he deserves SATURDAY 9 DECEMBER BAY OF ANGELS A mild-mannered banker (Claude Mann) becoming obsessed with roulette. Along the way, he also becomes obsessed with an aloof platinum blonde (Jeanne Moreau) who seems to live at the roulette wheel. She returns his attentions until revealing that it was all a ruse, brought on simply because she thought he brought her good luck. It’s triumph of style, from Jean Rabier’s stunning camerawork amid sun-splashed Riviera locations  to Moreau, looking resplendently like Bette Davis, to her entrance flashing across a succession of mirrors in the penultimate shot. BEFORE SUMMER ENDS After five years in Paris, Arash has decided to return home to Iran, but his fellow Iranian natives Hossein and Ashkan convince him to take one last trip through the South of France. As the best friends drive, drink lots of beer, and meet a pair of female French musicians, the trio experiences the thrill of a road trip imbued with a wistful longing for home. This artfully photographed non-fiction comedy beautifully captures the expat experience SUNDAY 8 DECEMBER A WOMAN'S BACK A moving, beautifully modulated adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s first novel, in which a young noblewoman copes with the loss of ideals. Stephane Brizé (The Measure of a Man) offers a dazzling mosaic of the trials and tribulations spanning 27 years in the life of Jeanne (Judith Chemla, Camille Rewinds). THIS IS OUR LAND This timely drama follows a young nurse and mother named Pauline (Émilie Dequenne), who is recruited by a right-wing politician resembling Marine Le Pen (Catherine Jacob) to be the approachable face of the National Front. Although Pauline is not particularly concerned with politics, she is seduced by the promise of an increased salary to support her family and the opportunity to make her country a safer place.

(Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, BFI London Film Festival, Friday 08 October 2021 18:00 Curzon Soho Cinema, Screen 1) https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp "Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn" Emilia (Katia Pascariu), a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on 'The Internet'. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emilia refuses to surrender to their pressure. The first lockdown ended in Romania at the end of May. The second wave of 'Covid-19' comes at the beginning of July. The number of cases is rising. How to interact with people. When we were young, we really admired all the crazy shoots we read about; "Way Down East", "Aguirre", "Apocalypse Now". We still admire them, but we're too weak. We should not risk the life or health of anybody when it comes to shooting. No film in the world is worth someone contracting even a common cold. All characters wearing masks. Wearing a mask in severe heat for 12 hours a day can be horrible. So, it's quite disappointing to have a few people every day taking off the mask whenever they can. We see it as a lack of respect, a kind of 'Fuck You', We don’t care about anyone else, we want to feel good even if we can infect you. This sometimes make the atmosphere tense. The masks are part of our daily life and the film captures this moment, to find the anthropological aspect of the mask-wearing. If you go down on the street during this time, the signs that remained, posters for concerts, empty restaurants, and so on and so forth are already signs of a non-existent reality. Cinema has this possibility to capture things, to capture the signs of the time passing, to make a capsule of the moment in many ways. It's about real-life stories from Romania and other countries, of teachers being expelled from schools where they're teaching because of what they're doing in their private lives; live-cam sex chat or posting amateur porn recordings on 'The Internet'. The discussions is so heabted, it makes us think that although the topic seems trivial and shallow, there must be a lot more behind it if reactions to it are so powerful. The film has three parts which engage each other in poetic ways, understanding poetic according to Malraux’s definition. Without doubt all true poetry is irrational in that it substitutes, for the established relation of things, a new system of relations. While the film title is mostly self-explanatory, it's subtitle, a sketch for a popular film, can benefit from an explanation. Malraux once noted that Delacroix, though affirming the superiority of the finished painting over the sketch, kept many of his sketches, whose quality as works of art he considered equal to that of his best paintings. The film looks like if it's form is left open, unfinished, like a sketch. The film could be easy like a summer breeze and because of it's tabloid-like topic. But it's not a real popular film. Only a sketch of a possible. What's obscene and how do we define it? We're used to acts which are much more obscene, in a way, than small acts like the one that set off the uproar we see in the film. The film clashes these two types of obscenity, and to see that the one so-called obscenity in the porn video is nothing compared with what's around us, but that we don’t pay attention to. The film tells a contemporary story, a small one, a little story. If history and politics are part of the film, that's because the story itself has a deeper meaning if we see it in a historical, societal and political context. Obscenity is the theme of this film and the viewers are constantly invited to compare the so- called obscenity of a banal amateur porn video with the obscenity around us and the obscenity we can find in recent history, whose traces are all around. So, the viewers should make this montage operation. Montage will be precisely one of the fundamental responses to this problem of constructing historicity. Because it's not oriented towards simplicity, Montage escapes theologies, and has the power to make visible the legacies, anachronisms, contradictory intersections of temporalities that affect each object, each event, each person, each movement. Thus, the historian renounces telling a story, but in doing so, succeeds in showing that history cannot be, without all of the complexities of time, all the archaeological strata, all of the perforated fragments of destiny. "Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn" delivers an incendiary mix of unconventional form, irreverent humor and scathing commentary on hypocrisy and prejudice in our societies.

The main character Maria is drowning in her complicated and unfulfilled life.Prepared to escape it all, by drowning herself in the sea, she ends up saving a man from drawning. There is a sense of mysticism intertwined with an undeniable reality conveyed throughout this bewildering film.

(Release Info London schedule; August 6th, 2018, Landmark) "The Spy Who Dumped Me" "The Spy Who Dumped Me" tells the story of Audrey (Mila Kunis) and Morgan (Kate McKinnon), two best friends who unwittingly become entangled in an international conspiracy when one of the women discovers the boyfriend who dumped her was actually a spy. Audrey and Morgan, two thirty-year-old best friends in Los Angeles, are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail. Surprising even themselves, the duo jump into action, on the run throughout Europe from assassins and a suspicious-but-charming British agent, as they hatch a plan to save the world. They embark on an action-packed international adventure after they discover that Drew (Justin Theroux), who recently dumped Audrey via text, is actually a spy. Armed only with their wits, Audrey and Morgan race through several European capitals, hunted by a host of top-secret operatives who want to help them or kill them, or both. These include taciturn British agent Sebastian Henshaw (Sam Heughan), pretentious jerk Topher Duffer (Hasan Minhaj), calculating spy boss Wendy (Gillian Anderson), and cold- blooded teenage assassin Nadedja (Ivanna Sakhno). As they learn to navigate the high-octane world of gun battles, car chases and daring escapes, the two best buds quickly learn that they can trust no one, except each other. Audrey and Morgan are the best of friends, and stronger than they know. Audrey is a person who thinks a lot, she’s very clever and smart, but she’s also her own worst enemy because she thinks enough to doubt herself, and if she doesn’t think something’s going to go well, she’ll play it safe. Morgan is pure heart, emotion, impulsiveness, she’s always putting herself out there, she’s a born performer, she’s been to every acting camp, singing camp, acrobatics camp, she’s that person. It's the character's differences that make them a great team. They've complementary skill sets. Morgan’s always saying; we can do it, we got this; she’s really confident. Audrey’s the one who’s thinking five steps ahead. They end up having both the skills necessary to get them through by the skin of their teeth. It’s Audrey’s craftiness and Morgan’s complete fearlessness that leads to a lot of the comedy and makes them a good match as friends. They bring out the best in each other. Like many best friends, Audrey and Morgan have shared goals, but very different personalities. Audrey is very gun-shy, and doesn’t lie well, is nervous in life, is self-conscious at all times, and plays life very safe. Morgan is her counterpart who's a struggling actress, who views life as one giant audition, and is constantly doing voices and characters, takes risks and chances, and goes balls out. The two of them kind of collide and go on this adventure together. "The Spy Who Dumped Me" is built as a genre-bender, two women at the center of an action-packed spy caper. This is Bridesmaids meets Bond. Central to "The Spy Who Dumped Me" is the deep and true friendship between the two main characters, Audrey and Morgan. We've all these movies about male friends, and we don’t have as many movies about female friends. We've women in romantic comedies, but we don’t really see women with their friends and how ridiculous and relatable those relationships can be, and yet for many women that's the most important relationship in their life. Everyone has a best friend, and everyone loves and hates their best friend at different times in their life. As the story unspools, the two average girls start to build confidence, an important narrative arc. Two types of movies we like to see are movies that show people being funny, relatable and self-deprecating as they go through their very mundane problems, and then movies where you get the total transporting yourself to another world fulfillment. The idea is about two people who do not belong in an action movie. But they've to survive when they find themselves in this really, really aggressive testosterone-y Bourne Identity kind of world. The story is about discovering yourself, testing yourself and exceeding what other people’s expectations might be. The way female friendship is presented in the film is natural, smart, inspiring and exciting. It’s part road trip, part best-friend movie, part travel log, part spy movie, as the characters discover their inner bad-ass with their best friend. Sometimes some of the moments in a movie that feel the most authentic and the most improvised feel that way because they're the most authentic and the most improvised. The movie combines what draws people to see an action movie and what draws people to see a female friendship movie. And the wish fulfillment of just leaving your comfort zone and going into a crazy vacation with your best friend. You know, neck cracking and ball-kicking and snapping and shooting. That's always fun! It's a female driven action comedy that dispatches with the guys. You’re going to be smiling, laughing your ass off, and then you might shed a tear at one point. But it will be a good tear.

(Release Info London schedule; March 13th, 2020, Vue Cinéma, Finchley Road, O2, Centre, 255 Finchley Rd, London NW3 6LU, United Kingdom, 2:30 pm) https://www.myvue.com/cinema/finchley-road/film/my-spy/times "My Spy" Jason Jones (Dave Bautista) is a hardened covert operative who finds himself out-maneuvered by Sophie (Chloe Coleman), a precocious youngster​. When 'CIA' field agent Jason Jones, 'JJ' to his friends, is demoted to a light surveillance detail, he finds himself at the mercy of a sweet but determined 9-year-old girl, Sophie, who uses her tech savviness and street smarts to find 'JJ’s' undercover hideout near the apartment she shares with her protective mother Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley). In exchange for not blowing 'JJ’s' cover, Sophie convinces him to spend time with her and teach her to be a spy. Despite his reluctance, 'JJ' finds he's no match for Sophie’s disarming charm, intelligence and aptitude for espionage. As the story begins, we see 'JJ' in his element, playing a mega-tough professional who dispatches the villains with ease. But now he’s going into a more nuanced world that demands a different, more subtle skillset, as opposed to a guy with a machine gun in the desert. Getting information, instead of breaking necks, doesn’t come so easily to 'JJ'. We meet 'JJ', he's piercing eyes and wearing a suit that barely contains his formidable physique, in a faraway desert, where he’s demonstrating his cowboy heroics and expertise in kicking butt, as he wipes out a band of bad guys carrying a plutonium pit. 'JJ' is an ex-'Special Forces', so action and heroics are what he’s good at. 'JJ’s' natural badassery is offset by his challenges with the covert spy stuff, which requires subtlety, finesse and emotional intelligence. None of which 'JJ' possesses. When he returns to 'CIA' headquarters, 'JJ’s' caustic and disapproving boss David Kim (Ken Jeong) dresses him down for botching the mission, the goal of which was to discover what the terrorists knew. But that’s going to be a little difficult, given that 'JJ' has killed them all. Kim gives 'JJ' one last shot to succeed as an agent, a seemingly lightweight surveillance assignment. Grunt work. Moreover, 'JJ’s' been saddled with a new partner, Roberta 'Bobbi' Ulf (Kristen Schaal), a tech specialist and aspiring field agent with messy hair, unkempt clothes, and an acerbic manner. This is all a punishment for 'JJ', so he’s not thrilled about it. Now, he and his pet fish, 'Blueberry', are stuck in this apartment with a partner who’s been forced on 'JJ'. Even worse, he’s running surveillance, to him, it’s really babysitting, and he thinks it’s a really embarrassing situation. As if 'JJ’s' mickey-mouse gig weren’t bad enough, things get even more uncomfortable for the beleaguered agent. He and Bobbi have planted high-tech cameras in a neighboring apartment occupied by a nine-year-old girl, Sophie, and her mother, Kate, whose deceased husband was connected to the terrorists 'JJ' had eliminated earlier. But the ingenious young lady, with the assistance of her dog, discovers one of the cameras and tracks down 'JJ' and Bobbi to their once covert lair. Lonely and friendless, Sophie blackmails 'JJ' to be her new best friend, and teach her everything he knows about being a spy. Desperate not to have his cover blown by a child, no less 'JJ' reluctantly promises that he’ll go ice skating with her, be her guest at her school’s 'Special Friends Day', humor the other kids with a ride on a teeter-totter and a game of dodgeball, and teach her the finer points of spycraft. Not only does Sophie have 'JJ' wrapped around her little finger, she quickly becomes adept at beating a lie detector test, outsmarts 'JJ' in a training move, and learns some of the fun spy stuff, like how to walk away from an explosion without looking back, or figuring out pithy statements to make before taking out a bad guy. As Bobbi fumes, ​she's supposed to be training with 'JJ' and her new pal grow closer, as the youngster attempts her biggest mission; set up her mom, Kate, with 'JJ'. Romance begins to blossom, but first, 'JJ' must deal with villains who are closing in on him and his new family, as Sophie puts her new skills to the test. The bad guys never have a chance. The favorite on-screen moment between Sophie and 'JJ' is when 'JJ' reluctantly teaches his young charge how to outsmart a lie detector. "JJ' is incredulous at how quickly she not only learns how to beat the machine, but how she turns her new skillset against him. Sophie is so deadpan and really carries it off. Ever mindful that a youngster, Sophie endeavors mightily to avoid using colorful language. Bad language is a fact of life. Everybody has to be on their toes because Sophie is always lurking in the shadows, just waiting for you to say a bad word. You just want to cheer and root for her. She's wonderful character. The heart and soul of ​"My Spy" ​is centered around the surprising bond between 'JJ' and Sophie. One is a nine-year-old girl, the other is a grizzled special ops veteran turned spy. As Sophie’s path to becoming a junior master spy blossoms under 'JJ’s' reluctant tutelage, his actual partner, Bobbi, feels like she’s been left behind. This is especially maddening for Bobbi because, she’s eager to leave the office and tech side of the operation and get out in the field and take down bad guys. Bobbi wants to be recognized as 'JJ’s' partner and equal. Bobbi’s frustration level escalates as Sophie becomes increasingly espionage-savvy. Sophie is not only getting closer to 'JJ', she pretty much starts running the mission So, Bobbi’s not thrilled with Sophie. Yes, she’s actually jealous of a nine-year-old. Bobbi confronts 'JJ', demanding to know why he’s teaching Sophie, and not Bobbi, everything he knows. And 'JJ' is clueless about handling her frustration, which drives her even more crazy. They’re like a bickering married couple. Sophie’s mother, Kate, an 'ER' nurse working long hours, is at first oblivious to her daughter’s friendship with 'JJ', not to mention her lessons in espionage. Then there’s Sophie’s’ other top-secret operation, to make a love connection between her mom and 'JJ'. But Sopies’s master plan goes sideways when Kate spots 'JJ' and Sophie holding hands as they’re enjoying ice cream cones. The protective 'Momma Bear springs into action, swatting away 'JJ’s' cone and kneeing him in his special ops. Obviously the scene is carefully mapped out in advance. There's an ice-skating sequence where 'JJ' reluctantly accompanies Sophie on a sojourn to a local rink. There's a dance scene featuring the culmination of 'JJ' and Kate’s first date. Both scenes bring out a side of 'JJ' that Kate didn’t expect to see. David Kim is 'JJ' and Bobbi’s exasperated and fed-up boss. Kim has pretty much had it with 'JJ’s' take-no-prisoners exploits and lack of field smarts, so he banishes him to monitor a woman and her young daughter in a nondescript Chicago apartment building. Kim is definitely a by-the-book, control-freakish 'CIA' boss. He’s at a tough place in his life and taking it out on everyone, especially 'JJ'. Blending action, humor and an unexpected friendship between a mega-tough superspy and a fatherless child. You've an emotional investment in these characters and their story. You can compare ​"My Spy's" surprising genre; blending to 'The ​Guardians Of The Galaxy' films. 'The ​Guardians' ​films are about family, but are disguised as superhero films, just as this one is a heartfelt relationship story, disguised as an action-comedy. ​"My Spy"​ gives audiences something unexpected; Dave Bautista being vulnerable and funny, as well as badass and tough., He compares his acting and on-screen presence to Clint Eastwood’s, it’s contained, grounded and subtle. This film has all the action you expect, as well as the romance and heart you don’t expect from a Dave Bautista movie. It has elements of a family comedy, that’s also relatable to adults, all wrapped up in a big action movie. Along with the action and comedy, there’s an inspiring message of two very, very different kinds of people coming together against all odds. That’s inspiring. And now, more than ever, audiences need a good laugh and to be entertained.

The Punk Floyd Company presents Actress/Writer Stella Velon’s directorial debut: THE CRITIC, a psychological drama/thriller, Produced/Executive-Produced by Jean Gabriel Kauss. Starring: Stella Velon (Baskets, Shutterbug, Men in Black 3) and Alan Smyth (Persons Unknown, The Outfield, Castle). Cinematography by Akis Konstantakopoulos Edited by Ivan Andrijanic Music by Asaf Sagiv Watch more clips on Youtube: http://bit.ly/the-critic Follow The Critic on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecritic.shortfilm IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8314192/ 2018 | USA | 15 MIN CONTACT: info@punkfloydco.com