(The Banshees of Inisherin • 2022 ‧ Drama/Comedy ‧ 1h 54m Showtimes London • Fri 21 Oct, Sat 22 Oct, Sun 23 Oct, Mon 24 Oct, Tue 25 Oct, Wed 26 Oct Thu 27 Oct, ODEON Luxe, 400 m·24-26 Leicester Square, LONDON WC2H 7JY, United Kingdom, 12:00 • 14:45 • 17:30 • 20:15 Leicester Square, 400 m·Leicester Square, LONDON WC2H 7NA, United Kingdom, 12:30 • 15:10 • 17:50 • 20:30 Vue Cinema London - West End (Leicester Square), 500 m·Leicester Square, 3 Cranbourn Street, LONDON WC2H 7AL, United Kingdom, 12:45 • 15:30 • 17:45 • 19:45 Picturehouse Central, 600 m·Piccadilly Circus, 13 Coventry Street, LONDON W1D 7DH, United Kingdom, 13:00 • 15:35 • 18:10 • 19:15 • 20:45 Curzon Soho, 650 m·99 Shaftesbury Avenue, LONDON W1D 5DY, United Kingdom, 12:00 • 15:40 • 17:50 • 21:20 ODEON Covent Garden, 800 m·135 Shaftesbury Avenue, LONDON WC2H 8AH, United Kingdom, 14:30 • 17:30 • 20:30) "The Banshees Of Inisherin" Set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, "The Banshees Of Inisherin" follows lifelong friends Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) and Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson), who find themselves at an impasse when Colm unexpectedly puts an end to their friendship. A stunned Pádraic, aided by his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) and troubled young islander Dominic (Barry Keoghan), endeavours to repair the relationship, refusing to take no for an answer. But Pádraic’s repeated efforts only strengthen his former friend’s resolve and when Colm delivers a desperate ultimatum, events swiftly escalate, leading to disastrous, anarchic consequences. “The Banshees Of Inisherin" is the story of an island, the small group of people on that island, and two friends who early on in the film are forced by the decision of one friend to go their separate ways. The other friend finds that particularly hard to deal with. The story opens with Pádraic walking happily around the island of Inisherin where he lives with his sister, Siobhán. Pádraic is a sweet, mild mannered, happy-go-lucky guy. Every day, Pádraic and Colm meet at 2pm to go for a drink in the only pub on the island. It’s a daily routine. On this particular day, however, everything changes. Colm ignores Pádraic when he calls. Colm starts acting very strangely and starts avoiding Pádraic. Colm doesn’t answer the door, which is how we start off the journey. That’s how it begins, with the shutting of a door against a good friend, for no apparent reason. Pádraic is initially surprised, then shocked, and eventually heartbroken. He’s also confused, since Colm has given no particular reason for the breakup. These two men have been friends for their whole lives..Why did Colm torpedo his friendship with Pádraic, was it something that Pádraic said, or did? Is Colm depressed? Should he respect Colm’s wishes and back off? Or should he try to change Colm’s mind or change himself? Within the first six minutes of the movie, the plot is in place. Pádraic can't understand why Colm doesn't want to be friends with him anymore and won't accept it. It’s similar to the feelings you feel when you've been dumped in a relationship. You think, ‘So did you ever like me, or was I imagining that we were in love'? We've to .understand the tough line that Colm, the breaker-upper, has taken, or do they identify with the nice person who's broken hearted. But Colm has his reasons. He doesn’t want to waste his time anymore. He wants to devote himself to artistic enterprises, music or thought. Pádraic is the fallout from that decision. Until this point things have been easy going. But Colm is older than Pádraic by 15 or 20 years. Colm identifies that time is precious and he sees Pádraic as a waste of time. It's a.smart way of playing with those feelings that everyone has in terms of a loving couple, heartbreak and rejection, but doing it with friends so there's a comedy element to it. Colm decides to embrace art and creativity as the most important thing in life and it leads to hellish consequences. The Irish Civil War was a tragedy, that’s the context here. Through examining it and trying to understand how things can get dragged out of shape, maybe we can face it down and not take that path. Do you devote yourself totally to life as an artist? Is work the most important thing? Does it matter who gets hurt in the process? It's a debate that isn't answered by the film. As Pádraic continues to prod Colm for a response, the situation escalates. Colm comes to a place where unless he does something very drastic, he's not going to be left alone. He threatens to cut his fingers off unless Pádraic leaves him alone and allows him time to create. Colm is curious in his mind and he’s a little bit intense. He reckons he has 12 years left, for no particular reason. He’s not ill but he knows his time is finite and he wants to leave a legacy. His art becomes his main priority. Colm’s quite sophisticated in his mindset. It’s a bit like a nuclear deterrent. Symbolically, he’s threatening to destroy his own gift of musicianship. Colm sees it as a badge of commitment. Pádraic shares a home with his younger sister Siobhán. It's coming up on eight years since their parents have died, so there's nobody else living here, apart from Pádraic’s miniature pet donkey Jenny, who Pádraic keeps sneaking into the house. They're close as siblings, so when Colm shuns Pádraic at the start of the film, Siobhán is perturbed. Siobhán is, perhaps, the wisest voice on the island. She realises the limitations of this community. It's inward-looking and resentful attitudes will eventually drag her down. She has ambitions that extend beyond the island, but she's also acutely aware that Pádraic needs her. Siobhán has been through a lot and so there's this sadness and loneliness to her. She's stuck. Pádraic drives her a little crazy, like a sibling would, yet she's motherly to him. She calls things out in the way that probably only a woman can. Her voice, wisdom, and enormous heart take you beyond the island and in a new direction. Colm’s artistic dilemma is reflected in Siobhán, whose life is consumed by reading, cooking dinners, and loneliness. Colm, perhaps, represents a struggle that Siobhán may find herself in within a few years. However, what's taking place on Inisherin, the division between Pádraic and Colm, and the growing rifts with other people on the island, mirrors what's occurring on the mainland. There are allegorical aspects to the division between both sides in the Irish Civil War. Then the islanders become involved. There's Peadar Kearney (Gary Lydon), the local cop whose dislike of Pádraic and his sister intensifies after his separation from Colm. Dominic Kearney (Barry Keoghan), the policeman’s son, is another person who's affected by this schism between the two men. Dominic is smart in his innocent, childlike sort of way. He has feelings for Siobhán, but she's the only girl for miles. Dominic bears a lot of that sadness and horror, as a lot of kids did in Ireland in the last century..The fictional island of Inisherin has a single pub run by Jonjo (Pat Shortt), whose best friend Gerry (Jon Kenny), is normally in residence. The pair provide a brilliant commentary on Pádraic and Colm’s declining friendship and subsequent duelling. Jonjo isn’t a mediator, but he tends to be there when some of the key moments happen. The pub is a major character in the story. It's yellow, bright. It has a red floor, which is an old oilskin from a sailcloth, and a black ceiling. These are strong colours for a period film. It's a multi-character piece and there are many strands that go through the story. Colm is the only character who wears a coat. The coat is light enough to blow in the wind and has elements of the American Western. There’s discord and madness, loss and suffering, and some laughs along the way. There’s something rotten in the community. All the characters are bananas. They're mad in their own unique ways; archetypes brought together to create a certain amount of chaos, but not chaos for the sake of it, and not just dark moments or themes to titillate and shock. The film is set in 1923 when Civil War was raging in Ireland. The fictional island of Inisherin is not affected but there's tension across the water on the mainland. Cannon roars and gunfire can be heard some nights and so we're very aware on the island that there's a civil war taking place. But we're also kind of shielded from it by virtue of being out of the way and a coastal outpost. The Irish Civil War was waged from 1922 to 1923, following the War of Independence and the establishment of the Irish Free State, which created an entity in one half of the country that was separate from the United Kingdom. Two opposing groups, the pro Anglo-Irish Treaty provisional government, and the anti-treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA), fought for dominance. They're not bothered about the war. It's like they're a separate little country, a separate little everything. The civil war was a catastrophic fallout that can emerge from a struggle for freedom. In the case of the Irish conflict, brother would be cast against brother, and friend against friend. Historically, it ended in horrific atrocities. The film does not adhere to the strict boundaries of history. Instead, it is it's own self-contained fantasy, a mythical place, a streak of madness permeating it's bones. The period setting of Banshees, 1923, leant itself to the idea of a Western. Shooting through doorways and that kind of John Ford-ian trope is something we explore in the storyboarding. The story lent itself to this idea of two almost lone gunmen falling out and getting into tiffs at the local saloon. The explorations of fidelity, separation, loneliness, sadness, death, grief and violence. Violence begets violence. The story is dark enough anyway, but the film wants the visuals and the locations to be as cinematic as possible. The mountainous geography of the island impacts the story. These looming mountains have a lot of tragedy behind them. It’s been informative, in terms of the broadness of Irish life. Everything is a little bit shabby and sad. The scale of this movie is massive. Filmmakers don’t usually try to send an audience away sad. But that's part of it, a about Ireland at that time and maybe about life. Written by Gregory Mann

Having worked beside KSI covering media for all his Misfits & DAZN Boxing events and having had several closed door conversations with the human rotating door of professions, I was always intrigued the origin of his mindset and how he maintains it indefinitely in the public eye. When I heard a documentary detailing exactly this was debuting this month, it went straight to the top of my watchlist. As the documentary opens, it very quickly reminds you how long it has been in development – since June of 2021, over two and a half years. The timeline is somewhat chronological. While it follows JJ through 2021 and 2022, the documentary retains the freedom to jump forward and back in time to provide context to the current storyline; one such example is the representation of the genesis of the KSI character. I say character, as the film makes sure to depict JJ Olatunji and KSI as two distinct entities: JJ Olatunji is the real, aspirational KSI is the fictional alter ego created by JJ to portray a confident, funny character to win over the internet. As the life of KSI becomes more appealing, the lines between the two individuals get blurred. These benchmarks in JJ’s life allow the documentary to split into three key moments that are spliced together: the origin of KSI, the merging of KSI and JJ Olatunji, and the separation of the two identities. All the important relationships of JJ’s life are put on display. While some are kept private out of personal choice (such as that with his girlfriend), they are still featured in some regard, and their significance in JJ’s journey are still reflected. One that shines in the one-and-a-half-hour feature is JJ’s elastic relationship with his brother, Deji. As most prospective viewers will know, the Olatunji brothers have had a bumpy relationship - they were very close at the start of their YouTube journeys but fell out heavily as their YouTube personas overshadowed the real people behind them. The film has the pair explain in their own words how and why their relationship fell apart and the slow process they embarked on to rebuild it. This is a topic that I was highly anticipating an examination into and is one I think many will be satisfied with. The documentary features deep moments with the Olatunji family, and doesn’t shy away from challenging topics, informing viewers of the many struggles their family went through. Even his parents openly discuss the severe mistakes they made in raising their sons, including their use of physical abuse, and their reasons for doing so, and current regret. The portrayed upbringing of JJ is one I anticipate a lot of viewers will relate to – something I was surprised was so similar to my own. The lives of other people important to JJ’s life and the effect he had on them, good and bad are front and centre. Each of these figures provide their insights into JJ and has them explain why they believe he’s been so successful and what they believe he lacks in his life. What is perhaps the strongest positive I can surmise for the feature, is that despite being a documentary about KSI, the film doesn’t shy away from painting JJ in a bad light at times. It provides a strikingly honest portrait of JJ and how other perceive him and the KSI alter ego. This documentary doesn’t have the typical production value of a TV documentary. The Prime Video budget and care from Mindhouse Productions really shines through the cinematography of the feature, as it’s shot more like a traditional film than a documentary; this extends to the aspect ratio, which adopts the theatrical “letterbox” approach rather than the adapted-for-TV “widescreen” format most documentaries have – this awards the film a larger than life feeling that is fitting to the ambitious and ever-expanding persona of KSI. Even the structure of the documentary deviates from other documentaries in true Louis Theroux fashion. If you’re a fan or are merely interested in the pop-culture personality of KSI, I strongly encourage you to spare an hour and a half to traverse the mind of JJ Olatunji. KSI: In Real Life is an exploratory journey in time that explores sensitive and private topics with full force and uses emotional fragility to its strength. It is an honest and intelligent biographical tour that forces all doors open in the mind of the man behind the internet persona KSI. KSI: In Real Life debuts Thursday 26th on Prime Video. Watch the trailer below:

(London Film Festival, October 8th, 2019, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8XT, United Kingdom, 18:10 pm) https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=guestofhonour&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id= "Guest Of Honour" Jim Davis (David Thewlis) and his daughter Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira), a young high-school music teacher, attempt to unravel their complicated histories and intertwined secrets in "Guest Of Honour", a film that weaves through time exploring perception and penance, memory and forgiveness. A hoax instigated by an aggressive school bus driver Mike (Rossif Sutherland) goes very wrong. Accused of abusing her position of authority with 17-year-old Clive (Alexandre Bourgeois) and another student, Veronica is imprisoned. Convinced that she deserves to be punished for crimes she committed at an earlier age, Veronica rebuffs her father’s attempts to secure her early release. Confused and frustrated by Veronica’s intransigence, Jim’s anguish begins to impinge on his job. As a food inspector, he wields great power over small, family-owned restaurants. It’s a power he doesn’t hesitate to use. While preparing Jim’s funeral, Veronica confides the secrets of her past to Father Greg (Luke Wilson) who may hold the final piece of this father-daughter puzzle. "Guest Of Honour" is a twisting morality tale exploring the complicated relationship between Jim, and his daughter Veronica, a young high-school music teacher, and the past that haunts them both. As the film weaves through time, scenes from the past catch up to the present, illuminating dark secrets. Jim is a food inspector working in a multicultural city. For him, each establishment is a potential hazard. He has the power to shut down restaurants not observing health codes. It’s a power he doesn’t hesitate to wield. Part of Jim’s weekly ritual is visiting his daughter in prison. Having confessed to abusing her position of authority as a music teacher during a high school band trip, Veronica rebuffs her father’s attempts to secure an early release. Confused and frustrated by his daughter’s intransigence, Jim’s anguish begins to impinge on his work. Scenes from the band trip gradually reveal that Veronica and Clive, one of her senior students, turned the tables on Mike, their aggressive bus driver. Their prank spirals out of control and becomes the basis for the charges brought against Veronica. Over Jim’s visits with Veronica, it becomes clear that there's another history at play. Veronica is using the prison sentence to punish herself for earlier transgressions. When she was a young girl, Veronica believed that her father was having an affair with her music teacher. Tragedy unfolds, in which Veronica is implicated, but was never held responsible. As a teenager, she confessed to the teacher’s son, with devastating consequences. Having lived with these secrets for years, Veronica has found a unique way of serving her penance. Jim doesn’t seem at all aware of his daughter’s true history even though he finds himself increasingly implicated in the compelling revelations of Veronica’s personal narrative. Father and daughter move towards a resolution, which is brought to a brutal halt when Jim dies. As she prepares for Jim’s funeral, Veronica confides in Father Greg (Luke Wilson) who may hold the final piece to the puzzle of the past. "Guest Of Honour" is a disturbing and compelling study of perception, memory and forgiveness. As a food inspector, Jim has the power to close a restaurant down, and while he uses this authority to determine other people’s destinies, he desperately tries to understand his own place in the world. Jim’s relationship with his daughter is obviously highly complex, that’s what the film is about. Realizing that the story really begins there, with the death of the mother. Jim is left on his own from then onwards, the fifteen intervening years between Veronica as young girl and Veronica as a woman. We've to understand what Jim so much loved about Veronica as a woman, a woman who’s gone off the rails, a woman who now baffles him, a woman who seems absolutely so incomprehensible in terms of her motives. And seeing that little girl playing the piano, the whole story becomes clear. Of course, there are sub-plots and various metaphorical issues and symbolism and storytelling, but it’s about a man trying to communicate with his daughter, trying to communicate the love he has for his daughter. That's utterly relatable in terms of how so many young people can get lost somewhere between adolescence and early adulthood, in all kinds of things that maybe one wouldn’t anticipate in their earlier years and can be catastrophic. It’s a terrible thing that’s happened really. One of the Jim’s characteristics is this sense of power he wields as a food inspector which may sound a rather banal job description. It doesn’t evoke wonderful images of this is a fascinating character we want to get to know until you really go down that hole and see what the issues are with food inspectors, and what a power-complex this man has. Simply, he can wreak havoc on people’s lives, close down family businesses with the flick of a pen-based on opinion or perfidy. He starts to abuse his power and manipulate his occupation to his own ends. But he’s rather delusional. He sees himself as some saviour, as some campaigner for health and safety, health and cleanliness, the health code is his bible and it takes him over. We've a backstory where he started a restaurant and that seems to have been scuppered by what happened to Veronica. He has to walk away from that business because of the vicissitudes of Veronica’s life and whether he holds some resentment there's another thing to be discussed. Maybe he’s doing this job as some kind of revenge. Now he enters a restaurant with the power to destroy the business, the lives of the owners. His vocation is taken away from him, and now he can visit the same fate on others. There are many levels to this film, you keep discovering. His daughter Veronica is a young music teacher who's passionate about her craft. But, she also carries trauma that bleeds into her relationship with her father. The film explores the complexities of family life. How family can absolutely make you or absolutely break you or both at the same time. The vast breadth of feelings, the turmoil those feelings cause! Music is very important to Veronica, it’s her source of joy and we’ll see in "Guest Of Honour" that she’s not always happy all the time so it will be nice to see the moments where she's lost in her music. She believes that she has found a way to a strange sort of peace in her life, until that is challenged by revelations of a past she never fully understood. She’s a character who’s broken, who makes impulsive, self-destructive decisions. We see her joy in music and we see her dark pain as well. With incarceration, she’s found a way of medicating herself. But it’s not sustainable and then something unexpected happens, which transforms her life. The character who holds the key to this past seems to be a priest. Father Greg is a Texan who's transplanted to Canada, The biggest mystery in the film is whether the food inspector Jim, in asking for his eulogy to be performed by this particular priest, has somehow planned an emotional reconciliation he could never have achieved with his daughter in life. Father Greg is an unusual priest. He knows about Veronica who’s come to see him to arrange a funeral for Jim. As he talks with Veronica to learn details for the eulogy, Father Greg comes to understand that he knows a great deal about her narrative. But he’s bound by oath not to share his knowledge. He breaks his word because, he decides, it's critical for Veronica to understand her father. Rather than see her continue to suffer, living with false assumptions, Father Greg renounces his pledge. As viewers, we can locate ourselves in this very complex narrative in terms of how he sets himself within it. Father Greg has an unexpected front row seat to Veronica’s story. Father Greg is one of those characters that’s woven throughout the story, Not quite a narrator, and not the protagonist, but a figure that intersects with the different characters. In that way, he knows all of the people that the audience meets, at different times and in different situations. And often times, as we find out, he knows these very personal parts of some of the characters’ histories. Father Greg’s character is a way for the audience to keep up with the storyline and these characters whose lives interrelate. You've these imperfect, interwoven characters and then there’s the priest who’s something of a psychiatrist, or a psychologist, or a doctor, somebody that people go to and share their personal stories. “Guest Of Honour" is an emotional investigation of the bond between a father and a daughter. Their history has been rocked by events that neither fully understands. They’re both in a suspended state for much of the film, trying to understand the nature of their connection to one another. There’s a very clear sense of time passing in this film. While we understand from the beginning that their physical relationship has ended with the father’s death, the details of their past are evealed in a form of psychological autopsy. The film finds a cinematic way of allowing the viewer to inhabit they particular world the characters are trying to navigate. The film explores what might be called the emotional chronology of Jim and his daughter, Veronica, a way of measuring their complex feelings. While the structure of the film is non-linear, it's actually based on a simple recounting of the scenes as they flow into the characters’ minds. While the situations specific to Jim and Veronica are extreme, the parent/child bond will be very familiar to audiences. The film creates a sense that for Jim and Veronica the scenes all play in a continuous and sometimes shocking sense of the ‘eternal present’. The film itself becomes a sort of machine through which the characters come to an understanding of what they mean to each other. "Guest Of Honour" is a story told through glass. Apart from the actual glass of the camera lens, which displays the way in which images of the past can be refracted and refigured, there's a literal use of a glass musical instrument woven through the film. The use of glass as a distorting lens, as well as a material which allows the process of creative expression, is an important motif in "Guest Of Honour". The soundtrack wows in unexpected ways, as the characters come to terms with the complexity of their lives and the exoticism of their relationship to their own pasts. Every child feels their parents made mistakes, certain ways in which the parent did not express love, or pay the right sort of attention. Those moments reverberate through our lives in sometimes painful ways. "Guest Of Honour" covers such a wide range of time, you get to see the evolution of specific characters, which is very exciting. Our family has been around us for our entire lives, they’re everything we know. Sometimes we project our feelings onto them, sometimes we feel their words are hurtful, but that’s what having a family is all about. The film ends with an unexpected reconciliation.

(Release Info UK schedule; Leeds International Film Festival, November 10th, 2019, Hyde Park Picture House, 73 Brudenell Rd, Leeds LS6 1JD, UK, 3:45 pm) https://hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk/film/greener-grass?screeningID=1924 "Greener Grass" Jill (Jocelyn DeBoer) and Lisa (Dawn Luebbe) live in their perfect homes in their idyllic suburban community with their happy families. Their days are spent in the grocery store exchanging fashion tips and at birthday parties complimenting their neighbor's potluck dips. In this dark comedy of manners, soccer moms Jill and Lisa seek the approval of their friends; at all costs. This surreal world is just on the edge of consciousness; suburbia through the looking glass. Every adult wears painful braces on their straight teeth, couples coordinate meticulously pressed outfits, and coveted family members become pawns in this competition for acceptance. In a day-glo-colored, bizarro version of suburbia where adults wear braces on their already-straight teeth, everyone drives golf carts, and children magically turn into golden retrievers, Jill and Lisa are locked in a passive aggressive battle-of-the-wills that takes a turn into the sinister when Lisa systematically taking over every aspect of Jill’s life. As the women desperately vie for validation, they struggle to maintain pleasantry and normalcy, even when things get weird. And they do get weird. When Jill gifts Lisa her newborn baby in an altruistic gesture, paranoia overwhelms Jill while her fears and anxieties quickly unravel. Meanwhile, The Ref (Londale Theus Jr.), a psycho yoga teacher killer, is on the loose and Jill’s husband Nick (Beck Bennett) has developed a curious taste for pool water. That’s just the tip of the gloriously weird iceberg, a hilariously demented, 'Stepford Wives'-on-acid satire destined to be an instant cult classic. These girls are idiots! They might not have seemed like your typical baseball-cap-wearing, video-village-lurking characters. Jill, in head-to-toe pink with her son Dan (Sutton Johnston) by her side, a golden-retriever wearing khakis and a 'Purple Heart' pinned to his polo. Lisa, with a soccer ball pregnancy tucked up under lavender tulle, both of them wearing braces on their teeth. Years ago, they're put on a house team together at 'The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre' in New York. They bonded one chilly night when all 'The East' coasters had left early and the two girls are putting the chairs away. There was one piece of a black-and-white cookie left and, like an overplayed 'My Fair Lady' CD skipping, they entered a loop of 'No, please, you've it' and so on. Neither of them ate that piece of cookie that night. And after only a few short half-hours, they threw it away together. And it was at that moment the girls would be incredibly productive working together. Now, Earth to Little Helen (Dot Marie Jones). Would a couple of idiots choose to triple-threat their future? A movie that stars children, a baby, and a seven-month-old puppy. A movie where we chose not to show any vehicles other than golf carts. A movie that co-stars a soccer ball with half a dozen costume changes. And most importantly, a movie featuring so many of our aging friends that we've to make a 'Hail Mary' decision to give every adult in the damn thing braces to look younger. But, alas. Dot Jones can say whatever she wants because she’s a 15-time world arm wrestling champion and we've delicate elbows. But just like non-idiots George R.R. Martin, JK Rowling, and Rand McNally before, they've created a world with it's own logic, hand-drawn maps, and board games based off it. This world is a demented version of suburbia. And who better to satirize oh-so idyllic, polite America than these two Midwestern middle girls? Suburbia has never been so hilariously absurd as it's in "Greener Grass", where two eccentric housewifes are driven by her eagerness to please. In a residential suburb with a killer on the loose, the two housewives compete to have the best children, the best husband and, above all, the most beautiful teeth. In this stinging satire on 'The WASP Community', a baby is given away like a piece of clothing and a child morphs into a dog without anyone being shocked. Politeness is taken to extremes and the realm of appearances reaches the point of lunacy. An overly colorful, deliciously warped version of suburban America that feels like 'The Stepford Wives' at a lawn party and then snuck off to do acid, the film plays soccer-mom frenemies in deranged competition with one another. Golf carts, braces, golden retrievers, soccer balls, and yoga teachers all play way bigger roles than you’d expect. This 'Desperate Housewives' on acid throws a nasty blow at the clichéd image of American suburbia. "Greener Grass" fully commits to a demented version of suburbia as the film scrutinizes the willingness to endure extreme discomfort in exchange for conformity. A deliciously twisted comedy set in a demented, timeless suburbia where every adult wears braces on their straight teeth, couples coordinate meticulously pressed outfits, and coveted family members are swapped in more ways than one in this competition for acceptance. "Greener Grass" explores one’s willingness to endure present pain in exchange for future validation; or at least a perfect smile. The film confirms a gift for outrageous absurdity in this impressive dark comedy full of unsettling behavior.

I Am a Ghost was directed by H.P Mendoza, which is a name most people have never heard. However, he became popular on the indie film circuit when he wrote a script for the 2006 film Colma: The Musical. Since then, he's been involved with a few films, but the most well-known of them all is I Am a Ghost. Made on an extremely low budget and fiercely hard to get hold of until the widespread availability of online streaming, the film was made popular by its premise - what if the ghost was the one being haunted? However, after the initial excitement of there being something new and innovative out, word of mouth made I Am a Ghost a cult classic. It was spoken about on film blogs by film critics, but it is a film which was very much touted by seasoned horror fans, not an unreasonably large marketing budget.  Emily (played by Anna Ishida) haunts a Victorian house in an unknown time period. She goes about her daily life, minding her own business, until one day she hears a voice that seemingly comes from nowhere. It turns out to be the voice of Sylvia (Jeannie Barroga), a psychic who makes a living exorcising spirits from people's houses. Because of that, Sylvia has to help Emily come to terms with the fact that she's dead and help her move to "the other side." The film cost $10,000 to make, and a lot of that was raised through Kickstarter. I Am a Ghost could never have a mainstream release. It's a film that starts with 15 minutes of near-silence; a loop of scenes, each one with an incredibly small variation. Emily feels restless, and so do we. However, just as the audience is about to give up, the story begins to reveal itself and the film kicks into gear. I Am a Ghost, for its budget, is a remarkably well-made film. The lighting isn't the sharpest (although it is functional), but the sound design is brilliant and there is some very impressive make-up design. In fact, the thing this most reminds me of is David Lynch's brilliant short-film series The Alphabet. This is an extremely experimental film from start to finish, and although it has a short running time of 76 minutes, it is one that rewards concentration and patience. On the surface, it's a ghost story, but the entire basis of the film is effectively a conversation between a therapist and patient, and a young woman's attempts to reconcile with her own death. The best thing about this film - and it's the best thing about all abstract films - is that it perfectly straddles the line between the metaphorical and literal. It also doesn't skimp on the horror elements. The end of I Am a Ghost is dark, gory and threatening, and I think it will satisfy the fans who were expecting something visceral. Horror films this unique and exciting are genuinely rare, and it is one of the most interesting horror films I've seen in years. It's ambitious, daring, experimental, and delivers an emotional and an intelligent payoff. It's available to stream on YouTube for £2.50-£4.50 and is well worth the rental price. If you're a horror fan, do yourself a favour and check this

(Release Info London schedule; Sat May 29, 2021, Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue, LONDON W1D 5DY, United Kingdom/Sun May 30, 2021, Curzon Victoria, 1.1 mi·58 Victoria Street, LONDON SW1E 6QW, United Kingdom/Mon May 31, 2021, Curzon Bloomsbury 0.9 mi·The Brunswick, LONDON WC1N 1AW, United Kingdom, 11:00 AM) https://www.google.de/search?q=the+killing+of+two+lovers&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgVeLVT9c3NEwrKjQ0tjAw28SkzsXrWlqUX5Cq75Ofl5KfJ8UGoZW4eJl4_ZxEvbex7tNiKs2-wMS4iFWyJCNVITszJyczL10hP02hpDxfISe_LLWoGAApYU7zWgAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYofGNmeLwAhULhf0HHQI2AsEQxyZ6BAgFEAo&biw=640&bih=287#wptab=s:H4sIAAAAAAAAAOPgVeLVT9c3NEwrKjQ0tjAw28SkzsXrWlqUX5Cq75Ofl5KfJ8UGoZW4eJl4_ZxEvbex7tNiKs3excTllpmTG5KZnJ1acoGJcRGrcklGqkJ2Zk5OZl66Qn6aQkl5vkJOfllqUbFCcUZ-eUlmbmoxAG2UKhBxAAAA (Release Info UK schedule; June 4th, 2021, Curzon Home Cinema) https://homecinema.curzon.com/film/the-killing-of-two-lovers/ "The Killing Of Two Lovers" Local odd-job handyman David (Crawford) is trying to keep it together. He and his wife, Nikki (Sepideh Moafi), are going through a time of transition and allowing each other space to figure out whats they want from life and from their relationship. But there's one major issue; David doesn’t want space. Forlorn and frayed, the conflicted David is devastated when he learns that there may be another man sharing his wife’s bed. He just wants things to get better, and he plays along with Nikki because he suspects it’s the only thing that may keep them and their four kids together. His reluctant consent allows him to still visit his four children Jesse (Avery Pizzuto), Alex (Arri Graham), Theo (Ezra Graham) and Bug (Jonah Graham), while holding Niki to mandatory date nights in hopes of fixing their marriage. Now living with his Dad (Bruce Graham), his mental health begins to deteriorate and paranoia consumes his sense of hope, forcing him to confront personal demons in order to save his family and future. He's hotheaded, jealous, and terrified of losing his family. An explosive combination in a claustrophobically small town where private lives seem impossible to preserve; leaving him with only one possible solution. In general, people in life are more complex than we paint them out to be. We don’t know if anyone is inherently all evil or inherently all good. There's a complicated aspect of that. It's really exciting the way we approached it. And for David there's no life outside of his family, so he’s trying to wrap his head around how he will even continue if things go south. His job is a means to an end and he even says, 'I wish I could have had the children and stayed home with them'. David is losing his family and trying to figure out how to fight for them while at the same time giving his wife this room that she’s asking for, which is extremely scary for him. Niki is really in love with two people, which is so complicated to understand when you’re told as a young child that you’ll grow up to get married and only love one person. In the film Niki is loving two people and on top of that her career is blossoming, which is something that was unexpected when she took a job just to take a job and then all of a sudden realized she’s really talented and has skills. And for Derek is interested in settling down and that in his mind, he thinks he may be able to be a part of these children’s lives. He’s dealing with the complicated aspect of loving a woman who has children and a husband, but may be willing to take on all these responsibilities for how much he loves Niki. Then you take all these people who've good intentions in this small town environment and it gets incredibly complicated. The three main characters, David, Niki, and Derek (Chris Coy), continually surprise the audience with the duality of their behavior. We all understand betrayal, we all understand sadness, and if you've a child in your life you understand that love is unlike anything else in the world. It's a gift to be a dad and to have an opportunity to show this thing that we've inside of us just naturally. We never know why David and Niki broke up, we find them just as David is beginning to understand that his wife is sleeping with someone else and this is really all happening for him, he may not be at his dad’s for just a brief stint. The most pivotal moments of the film are defined by epic long takes and stunning wide shots. Think about the rocket scene, it’s like a photograph, framed from the position that Niki would be in if she's taking a picture. What this does is allow us to be in the moment and have all the elements within that moment be rooted to that period of time. The rocket scene, again, is a great example of a memory that would occur. What would the kids remember? How would David and Niki remember this argument? And the other aspect with this shooting style is that, when you film longer takes, you don’t allow the audience to relax, you remove the breathing room that multiple cuts often provide. "The Killing Of Two Lovers" is a story about a father going to pick up his kids who gets into an altercation with his wife’s boyfriend. It's about the period of life that we're in right now. We've seen the marriages of several friends and family members end in recent years and it gets us thinking about our male friends who really define themselves as good fathers and enjoy being fathers. Losing the everyday experience of putting your kids to bed, or sitting on the couch and watching TV with them, caused a few of them to start acting out of character, which is so interesting to us; to see the way in which they responded to this aspect of their life change. The film explores this kind of experience through a character like David because that it’s something you don’t understand until it happens to you. It's also about the idea of masculinity and the role it would play in a situation like this, when a man is fighting for his desired life while at the same time trying to respect his partner, which is a complicated thing to explore in-and-of itself. 'Kanosh' is a town of only 300 people, and it’s a tight-knit community, but houses are dying within that town. Every other block there’s a house falling apart. The landscape is perfect as a background for a marriage, because the onset of marriage is always very beautiful, but the nitty gritty is always more complicated and tight. The possibility of having that background against this intimate town while dealing with a failing marriage would be really valuable. Kids like movies, but we like the organic nature of their touch. The way that they climb over each other and the way they comfortably interact with each other, there’s an element of realism that you can’t really get if you cast actual actors in those roles. It allows us all to live free in the moment and to truly buy into the circumstances. The film is.a transfixing drama without a wasted word or a single inessential scene. It's an absolute marvel in execution that combines the naturalistic, languid life of a one-street town with the simmering suspense of a thriller. Each scene of 'Lovers' threatens to explode as it dives deeper into a torn soul just trying to do the right thing.

The Light of the Moon (Newcastle Film Festival) This gritty, grounded, true to life account of the rape of a woman (Bonnie, played fantastically by Stephanie Beatriz, better known as Agent Diaz from Brooklyn 99) was my top film of the Newcastle Film Festival. The plot takes place over about a month, and we see Bonnie trying to reintegrate herself back into her world of work, meeting friends, having an intimate relationship again with her boyfriend. She jumps from not wanting to talk about, to wanting her boyfriend to talk to her about it, who in turn doesn't know how to react to any of this. He tries to follow the guidelines but that only seems to make things worse. The story is nothing over the top. Nothing that leads her to decide to campaign or go on a revenge mission. Just a woman trying to get her life back to how it was before some unknown bastard decided to take advantage of her. There were only a few stylistic cinematography shots but I felt that that was with a purpose as being too pretty a film would have downplayed the hard hitting context. I doubt that this will ever be a mainstream movie, but I felt it excellently conveyed how easily such an occurrence could happen to someone, and the magnitude of the fall out.

(Release Info London schedule; July 24th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-the-traitor-film-online "The Traitor" In the early 1980’s, an all out war rages between 'Sicilian' mafia bosses over the heroin trade. Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino), a made man, flees to hide out in Brazil. Back home, scores are being settled and Buscetta watches from afar as his sons and brother are killed in Palermo, knowing he may be next. Arrested and extradited to Italy by 'The Brazilian' police, Buscetta makes a decision that will change everything for 'The Mafia'. He decides to meet with Judge Giovanni Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi) and betray the eternal vow he made to 'The Cosa Nostra'. Tommaso Buscetta is fickle and constantly on the move, both in his life and in personal relationships. He’s out of the ordinary, intelligent, charming, effective and endowed with natural authority. A mafioso loyal to 'The Cosa Nostra', but also to his own personal principles, he’s not afraid of challenging authority. From the end of 'The 1970s' to the start of 'The 1980s', he faces the growing strength of 'The Corleonesi', headed by the uncompromising Totò Riina (Nicola Calì). This new small group has no mercy and flouts the basic principles of 'The Cosa Nostra'; they kill women and children and eliminate whatever gets in their way. This group holds no place for Tommaso Buscetta. When in 1982 he moves to Rio de Janeiro with his beloved wife and children, he aims to end his involvement with 'The Mafia'. But there’s no such thing as leaving 'The Mafia', the organization hunts him down. However, 'The Brazilian' police beat them to it and extradite him to Italy. Buscetta then proposes a deal to 'The Italian' judiciary. He’ll cooperate and dismantle 'The Mafia' in exchange for his own protection and survival. He’s soon confronted with the imposing, inflexible and tenacious Judge Giovanni Falcone, and we’re plunged into the depths of 'The Sicilian' organization; murders, shoot-outs and scams. All this provides the backdrop to Buscetta’s account, who turns out to be 'The Cosa Nostra’s' biggest mystery; no one knows why he’s collaborating. He seems motivated by revenge and the desire to dismantle a mafia no longer in line with his values. Buscetta is a traitor for deserting to the enemy, but he doesn’t see himself that way. In the course of his confessions, he highlights the gulf that exists between his mafia and that of 'The Corleonesi'. He intends to do justice to the true 'Cosa Nostra' in this way. Tommaso Buscetta, also known as 'Don Masino', is a fascinating character who left an indelible mark on the history of the fight against 'The Mafia'. Born in Palermo in 1921, the youngest of a poor family with 17 children, he marries early and has two sons by the age of 16. He embarks on a career of crime in 1945 and soon demonstrated his skills, rapidly climbing the hierarchy of 'The Cosa Nostra'. In 1963, pursued by 'The Italian' judiciary, he flees first to 'The United States', then to Brazil. This earns him the nickname 'The Boss Of Two Worlds'. But Buscetta’s empire is to collapse. He's arrested by 'The Brazilian' police, then imprisoned and tortured in Italy. In 1980, he manages to escape from prison and returns to Brazil in order to flee from 'The Mafia War'. After marrying his third wife, Cristina (Maria Fernanda Candido), a young Brazilian with whom he has two children, Buscetta is again arrested by 'The Brazilian' police. Deeply affected by the executions of those close to him, and in particular by the brutal murder of his two eldest sons, he tries to commit suicide by poisoning himself. But his life is narrowly saved and he's extradited to Italy. Once back in Italy, he makes a decision that would change both his life and 'The Mafia". He meets Judge Falcone and collaborates with the judiciary. The information which Buscetta provides 'The Italian' authorities is the most important ever obtained. For the first time, it's possible to weaken 'The Cosa Nostra'. 475 people are charged and 'The Maxi Trial' takes place in Palermo. Buscetta is the key witness and takes the stand at considerable risk. He makes 'The Cosa Nostra' his enemy and, despite the danger, held firm to his course of action. The criminal organization murdered two of his children, further members of his family and friends. The trial ends with 360 convictions. Buscetta then goes further and denounces the links between 'The Mafia' and Italian politicians. Don Masino’s revelations incriminated powerful men like Giulio Andreotti (Bruno Cariello), a former prime minister. To secure his own peace and anonymity, he moves first to Brazil, then to 'The United States', where he spent the rest of his life under 'The US Witness Protection Program'. Buscetta’s greatest victory, however, lay in his demise: after a life full of murder and the settling of scores, he's able to live his final days in peace, finally dying of cancer in 2000. Maria Cristina De Almeida Guimaraes is Buscetta’s third and final wife, as well as the mother of his youngest children. She's Brazilian and much younger than him. Passionate, strong, clear-headed and always present, she's very different from the regular mafiosi wives who lived in their husband's shadows. Cristina is active, intelligent and autonomous, she's a keystone in Buscetta’s life and played a crucial role in his decision to betray 'The Mafia'. Salvatore Riina, born on November 16th, 1930, in Corleone, also known as 'Totò Riina', is nicknamed 'Totò u Curtu' in 'Sicilian' dialect because of his shortness (158 cm) and 'La Belva' ('The Beast') due to his ferocity. Totò is one of the most influential members of 'The Sicilian Mafia'. In the course of his criminal career, he personally murdered approximately 40 people and is suspected of having ordered the killing of 110 others. During 'The 1980s' and in the early 1990s, Riina and his mafioso family, 'The Corleonesi', led a merciless campaign of violence against both rival mobsters and 'The Italian State'. 'The Mafia’s' terror spread within the population and caused the authorities to introduce strict measures, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of Riina and several of his associates in 1993. Sentenced to life in prison, he dies of cancer in 2017 after word of his possible release on health grounds provoked public outrage. Salvatore Contorno (Luigi London Cascio), known as 'Totuccio Contorno' is a former mafia soldier under the command of Stefano Bontade (Goffredo Bruno). He later becomes a witness in 'The Maxi Trial'. Contorno is initiated into 'The Cosa Nostra' in 1975. He's one of Bontade’s favorite hitmen and is also associated with Tommaso Buscetta. During 'The Mafia War', 'The Corleonesi' want to eliminate Contorno, but he's able to escape and protect his family. He decides to collaborate with 'The Italian' authorities, following Buscetta’s example. 'Pippo Calò' (Fabrizio Ferracane), whose real name is Giuseppe Calò, is born on September 30th, 1931, in Palermo, Sicily. He's a very influential member of 'The Cosa Nostra' and is nicknamed 'The Mafia’s Cashier' because of his involvement in a number of money laundering cases. A very close friend of Tommaso Buscetta, he nevertheless chose to support the latter’s principle rival Totò Riina at the start of 'The 1980s'. After several years on the run, he's arrested on March 30th, 1985, and tries in 'Palermo’s Maxi Trial' for money laundering, associating with 'The Mafia', murder and racketeering. He receives two life sentences. He remains an active member of 'The Cosa Nostra' even in jail, where he lives a life of luxury and less influential inmates are his servants. Pippo Calò’s crimes include the bombing of 'The Naples-Milan' train in 1984, which killed 15 people and injured 116. Giovanni Salvatore Augusto Falcone, born in Palermo May 18th, 1939, and murdered May 23rd, 1992, in Capaci, is an Italian judge committed to fighting 'The Mafia'. His assassination is ordered by Totò Riina, head of 'The Corleonesi' clan. Falcone comes to prominence in 1984 when he takes the testimony of one of 'The Cosa Nostra’s' most important informers, Tommaso Buscetta, known as 'Don Masino'. On the basis of this testimony, Falcone opens 'The Maxi Trial' in Palermo in 1986. Palermo’s criminal court isn’t large enough to accommodate the 475 accused who are to stand trial, so a courtroom known as 'The bunker' is created. Falcone asks for additional resources to pursue the fight against 'The Mafia', but decisions aren't immediately forthcoming. Giovanni Falcone becomes a hero and an icon throughout Italy. He also becomes the number one enemy and main target of 'The Cosa Nostra'. The police escort provision isn’t enough to protect Giovanni Falcone. On May 23rd, 1992, he's murdered by 'The Cosa Nostra' in what's known as 'The Capaci Massacre'. "The Traitor" is more the story of Tommaso Buscetta than of 'The Cosa Nostra". Betrayal is a recurrent theme tirelessly explored in film, precisely because it makes us reflect on change. Can a man truly and profoundly change in the course of his life or is it just a pretense? Is change a way of healing, of repenting? Did Buscetta, who refuses the label of informer all his life, embark on this process of healing, of redemption, to become a new man? Or did he create his own justice? In the past, 'The Cosa Nostra' had nothing to do with the perverse entity that it's today. Buscetta collaborates with 'The State' to prevent others from believing in the dignity and honor of 'Fhe Cosa Nostra'. These values have been buried under a mountain of innocent victims.

"Anatomy Of A Fall"     For the past year, Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), her husband Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), and their eleven-year-old son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he was murdered or committed suicide. Samuel's suspicious death is presumed murder, and Sandra becomes the main suspect. Little by little, the trial becomes not just an investigation into the circumstances of Samuel's death but an unsettling psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel's conflicted relationship.   "Anatomy Of A Fall" portrays the downfall of a couple's relationship. The concept is to depict the physical and emotional descent of a body in a technical manner, symbolizing the decline of their love story. This couple has a son who discovers their tumultuous relationship during a trial that scrutinizes every aspect of their past. As the trial unfolds, the boy transitions from a state of complete trust in his mother to one of doubt, marking a crucial turning point in his life. The film follows this transformation closely. The film wants to incorporate the child's perspective into the narrative and juxtapose it with Sandra's, the main character, for a more balanced portrayal of the events. The film takes on the form of an extended interrogation, with scenes shifting from the couple's home to the courtroom, where characters are incessantly questioned. But there's no sense of realism, it's more a documentary style both in the writing and the cinematography. The film begins with a disorienting shot of a ball rolling down a flight of stairs. This obsession with falling is a recurring motif throughout the film, initially in a literal sense. We're are fascinated with the sensation of body weight and what it feels like to fall, which was sparked by the opening credits of Mad Men, where a man keeps falling.   The film constantly ascend and descend stairs, observing the fall from various angles to unravel how it happened. The film introduces the ball as a symbol of the fall, caught by a dog who looks at Sandra, the central character, and sets the stage for the two and a half hour exploration of her story. It's the battle between a couple with a child, delving into the complexities of time-sharing in a relationship. It's a theme that isn't often explored in cinema and raises important questions about reciprocity, trust, and the dynamics of a partnership. The characters challenge the traditional couple schema by reversing their roles. Sandra's pursuit of her freedom and will creates an imbalance, leading to an exploration of equality in a relationship that is both powerful and questionable. The film invites us to question our preconceived notions of democracy in a relationship and how it can be derailed by dictatorial impulses and a dimension of rivalry. Despite their struggles, the couple's idealism and refusal to resign themselves to a less-than-perfect situation is admirable. Even in their arguments, which are actually negotiations, they continue to be honest with each other, revealing a deep love that persists despite their challenges.   The use of different languages, French, English, and German adds a layer of complexity to Sandra's character and creates a sense of opacity. It also maintains a distance between her and the audience as a foreigner on trial in France, who must navigate her way through the languages of her husband and son. Sandra is a complex character with many layers, which the trial will explore. They do not speak the same language. This makes their negotiation even more concrete, with the idea of a third language serving as neutral ground. It's clear that there's a real love of language and verbal sparring in the courtroom scenes, and Advocat général (Antoine Reinartz) has a lot to do with that. He adds an otherness to the film and brings the contemporary world into it, which breaks the dusty solemnity of the trial. Although he plays the villain, he portrays a very seductive, devious, and flamboyant character. He speaks on behalf of the deceased, whom we hardly ever see, and must make him endearing to both the jurors and the audience. Advocat brings an arena dimension to the court and portrays the civilized violence of the prosecution. On the contrary Maitre Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud) plays a rather fragile character, sensitive, on the defensive. He's good but not idealized. It's clear that Sandra and knew each other years ago, and that there's still something between them that's not entirely extinguished.   The film has no flashbacks, the focus is on the spoken word. In a trial, truth is elusive, and there's a void that needs to be filled by the spoken word. And in reality, these exceptions are not flashbacks: in the scene of the argument, it is a sound recording that suddenly materializes on screen, creating a sense of presence. There's also the scene where Daniel reenacts his dead father's words, but it belongs to a different category. This time we've the image, but it's an account of a memory, an invention, or at best, a testimony without proof, as pointed out by the public prosecutor. The courtroom is essentially where our history no longer belongs to us, where it's judged by others who have to piece it together from scattered and ambiguous elements.   Written by Gregory Mann

The first film review I ever posted on YouTube was of Francis Lawrence's Red Sparrow, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Dominika Egorova, a ballerina turned spy. However, in said review, I discuss how the 15-certificate may not be the appropriate rating for this slightly NSFW film. P.S. I am terribly nervous in this video, but we all have to start somewhere.

"Expend4bles"     In "Expend4bles", a new generation joins the world’s top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure. Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) are back, leading the irreverent and indestructible team of elite mercenaries who laugh in the face of death. They're again joined by Gunner (Dolph Lundgren) and Toll Road (Randy Couture). Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defense and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. The core team is buttressed by some new blood with equally unique styles and tactics, but with the same Expendables-style attitude.   They're a tight-knit team who run missions for various and ultra-secretive agencies. The leader of the pack, Barney Ross, has been with The Expendables  since its inception. Barney, is iron-willed, a master tactician, and supreme badass. He’s also a loyal friend to his comrade-in-arms, Lee Christmas. Before embarking on the team’s next mission, Barney’s bond with Christmas comes to the fore at a biker bar, where Barney and Christmas are seeking the return of the former’s cherished ring, which Barney lost, in a thumb-wrestling contest. When the duo’s fast-talking, joke-infused banter fails to yield results, Barney and Christmas do what they do best: take on the entire bar in a wild melee. Barney and Christmas are closer than brothers. As Barney heads into battle, you’ll never find him without his lucky skeleton ring. Barney’s number two, until he passes the torch in this new installment, is Lee Christmas, a hot-headed, knife-wielding merc who’s always by Barney’s side. Christmas is rough around the edges, but The Expendables are always there to support him.   If you double-cross Christmas, you’ll probably end up with a knife between your eyes. Gunner Jensen, a hulking giant, is, like all The Expendables, dedicated to the team’s success. A former chemical engineer, Gunner combines brains, when he chooses to use them, and brawn. This time, he’s trying to stop drinking, and is hung up on a woman he’s met only on the internet. Gunner has more than his share of idiosyncrasies and issues, be it substance abuse or concentration. But he’s been sober for several months and is doing the AA program. He’s also dating on the internet and love may be affecting his skills. There’s always something comedic going on with him, so he’s a bit of a comic relief for the team. Gunner is the only Expendable that isn’t trying to be tough; he doesn’t really care about that. He’s truly an agent of chaos. The fourth founding member of The Expendables is Toll Road, a skilled demolitions expert who’s also proficient in grappling. Due to the latter, Toll Road sports a prominent cauliflower ear, which his teammates, including the new crop, enjoy making fun of.   Newly 'Expendable' are Marsh (Garcia), a suit-and-tie CIA bigwig who assigns the team to its most dangerous mission; Easy Day (50 Cent), a former Marine who had once worked closely with Barney; Gina (Megan Fox), a hired gun and Christmas’s hot-tempered ex; and the hot-blooded, fast-talking Galan (Jacob Scipio), who’s the son of a former Expendable stalwart. They're the shadows and the smoke. They are the ghosts that hide in the night. It’s all about the camaraderie and chemistry. These guys can’t navigate through life, in general; they are only successful when they are together, saving the world. Their individual dysfunction makes them relatable; instead of being indestructible warriors, they feel pain and loss. That’s where we find Lee Christmas as the story opens. He’s having a volatile break-up with his girlfriend, Gina. In addition to being a skilled warrior, Christmas is known for his way with the ladies. But he’s met his match with Gina, a fellow mercenary with whom he’s experiencing a tumultuous, and very loud, breakup. And the team mission that follows is marked by a monumental error in judgment, not long after Christmas takes the reins from Barney as team leader.   But as The Expendables come together for their new mission, Barney is still very much in charge, greeting his longtime team members, welcoming the newcomers, and setting the table for the daunting and life-changing challenges to come. It all seems like business as usual for Barney and the team, but as the mission unfolds, and Barney remains in the pilot’s seat of their plane while his men battle the enemy on the ground, everything is about to change. The Expendables new mission finds them once again aboard their iconic turboprop plane, the Antanov, headed to a secret base adjacent to Libya’s nuclear weapon program. They’re on the hunt for a pitiless arms dealer, Rahmat (Iko Uwais), and his private army, which has stolen detonators to a nuclear device that could start World War III. Rahmat is a former military officer who’s now spearheading a deadly arms deal that could trigger nuclear war. He has some very dangerous clients. When Christmas goes off mission to help a comrade, Rahmat makes a narrow escape, taking the detonators with him. It’s a rare but total mission failure for The Expendables. As the team regroups, they set off on their most fateful journey to stop Rahmat and uncover the high-level operative he’s serving.   The Expendables is synonymous with great fighters and martial artists, it's in the franchise’s DNA. To carry that flame forward and keep it alive, we continue to pay tribute to the great fighters in cinema. Expendables crosses over generations. You've these iconic 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s action movie stars who are still clanging and banging with the best of them to this day. But you also have a new generation passing through, so we're honoring the new, the old we should say, but inviting the new into it. While next-level, explosive action provides the thrills, the film maintains the ante of the action in different areas, including hand-to-hand combat in more of a Hong Kong style than we’ve seen in the previous Expendables films. The film wants to create a much more visceral feel, which is what the Expendables films are all about. "Expend4bles" is a film to enjoy for its characters, thrills, heart, and laughs. That is the film’s triple-threat.   Written by Gregory Mann

(Release Info London schedule; February 6th, 2019, Cineworld, 5-6 Leicester Square, 11:00 AM) "Alita: Battle Angel" From filmmaker James Cameron comes "Alita: Battle Angel", an epic adventure of hope and empowerment, based upon 'The Manga Gaphic Novel Series' by Yukito Kishiro. When Alita (Rosa Salazar) awakens with no memory of who she's in a future world she does not recognize, she's taken in by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyberphysician who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg core is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of 'Iron City', Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious history while her street-smart new friend Hugo (Keean Johnson) offers instead to help trigger her memories. But it's only when the deadly and corrupt forces that run the city, headed by Vector (Mahershala Ali), come after Ido and Alita that she discovers a clue to her past; she has unique fighting abilities ingrained in her that those in power will stop at nothing to control. If she can stay out of their grasp, she could be the key to saving her friends, her family and the world she’s grown. 'The 23rd Century', Earth underwent 'The Fall', a shattering war that halted all technological progress  and left in it's wake a society where every last shred of tech is repurposed and the strong prey on the weak. The story takes place 300 years after a huge war has devastated the planet and a plague weapon left only a tiny percentage of human survivors. The heart of life on Earth beats in 'Iron City', a rich melting pot of survivors; a city full of ordinary people and cybernetically-enhanced humans living side-by-side in the shadow of 'Zalem', the apex of civilization at the time. 'Zalem' is the last of 'The Great Sky Cities'. 'Iron City' may be an oppressed factory town, cranking out goods for the invisible elites who live in the sky, but it has it's own color and energy, it's thrills and it's aspirants. But 'Iron City' remained as essentially a giant refugee camp. It’s full of all these people trying to get to 'Zalem', to get to the land of opportunity and dreams that they can see but always seems just of reach. It's a world in which cybernetic body parts are routinely melded with human bodies and brains to create cyborgs of all shapes, sizes and abilities. And now it's about to get an unlikely hero, a teenage cyborg who emerges from a junkyard to discover her identity and become a source of buoyant hope. When Alita re-awakens to a brand-new life in 'Iron City', she goes through a series of intense transformations. She begins as a nearly blank-slate, devoid of memories, so that even the sour tang of an orange peel electrifies her taste receptors. With no clear identity, she wonders if she's just an insignificant girl who has no real purpose, no real family, even as she begins to forge fledgling bonds. Then, when she discovers the body that's intended to be hers; the so-called 'Berserker' body that has faculties the likes of which 'Iron City' has never seen, Alita has to contend with a whole different idea of her destiny. Ultimately, Alita realizes she's definitely not going to be an insignificant girl, and she refuses to be just the weapon of destruction that 'The Berserker' body is created for. Instead, she turns herself into a passion-fueled instrument for justice. A massive casting search ensued to find someone who could embody all this; a diminutive person with a mammoth persona, with both high-flying moves and the sheer force of a bright and openhearted spirit. After all, tiny Alita must stand up to 13-foot tall cyborg brutes, so the audience has to trust not only in her battle virtuosity but in her growing confidence and determination to both understand the vastness of her power and use it wisely. It's a sleek, iridescent work of biomechanical art with a complex network of neuronal connections that morphs to her subconsicous. Alita’s body change is a kind of metaphor. Alita comes to feel deeply grateful to Dr. Ido, the brilliant cyberphysician who uses his medical training to help the needy of 'Iron City', even while prowling the night as a hunter-warrior. The mesmerizing adventure begins as Ido do makes a scrapyard find that will change his life and 'Iron City' forever, the discarded cyber-core of a girl whose body may be broken but her human brain is still barely pulsing with life. Ido cannot abandon her. He begins to restore this mysterious cyborg and discovers a second chance at fatherhood, a chance to watch her learn, grow and taste the wondrous pleasures of life for the first time with wide-eyed excitement. It's Ido who, in trying to assuage his own emotional pain over the loss of his own daughter, gives Alita a warm, loving home where she's free to explore her true self. Ido tries in some ways to control her but also learns to trust her and let her go, believing that she will make the right choices. They go through all of the moments that a father and daughter go through; the struggling, the love, that moment of the bird leaving the nest. Alita replaces a piece of Ido’s broken heart and in return he gives her life. But the sweet, curious girl Ido names Alita hides many secrets. When Alita inadvertently reveals she possesses unique long lost fighting skills, it becomes clear she must carve out her own destiny. For even if the art of the battle was long ago hardwired into her, Alita must discover in her soul the reasons to fight.   Hugo has to be a hustler to survive in this tough, tough world. He could have gone the route his father did as a factory worker, but he’s driven by the hope of getting to 'Zalem', which has led him to do things he isn’t proud of. Even so, there’s a lot of good to Hugo. He’s passionate, open-minded and when he puts his mind to something, he expects to accomplish it. As it turns out, Hugo is also a 'Jacker', an 'Iron City' outlaw who takes cybernetic body parts by force; a dark truth he tries to keep from Alita. Hugo believes jacking is his way to 'Zalem', but when he falls in love with Alita, he's no longer sure if 'Zalem' is worth it to him. Hugo certainly doesn’t expect to fall for a cyborg, but Alita’s exuberance about the world is intoxicating. When he teaches her to play street 'Motorball', only to watch her excel beyond his wildest fantasies, his heart takes off racing. 'Motorball' is Hugo’s game, so when he sees her incredible talent, it blows him away. But he also sees such a pure soul in Alita. Hugo may not have the enhanced physicality of a cyborg, but he has his own skills. He knows every secret alley and shortcut in 'Iron City'. Then there’s Hugo’s gyrobike, an amped-up, aggressive, single-wheeled version of a motorcycle. The more Alita reveals about who she's, the more she also develops enemies across 'Iron City'. One of the first to recoil in her presence is Dr. Ido’s ex-wife, Chiren (Jennifer Connelly), also a skilled cyberphysician, but one who has turned grief into the pursuit of money and power in the high-stakes world of 'Motorball'. Chiren is aghast to see that the body Ido used to give Alita a new chance at life was the one they designed for their now-deceased daughter. Chiren was born in 'Zalem' so she sees returning there as a kind of magic balm for her life, a way to escape her memories of grief and loss in 'Iron City'. She wants to be transported away with every part of her being and there’s no way she’s going to surrender to existence in 'Iron City'. Her extreme drive is a measure of her desperation and bitterness. In an indelible moment, Chiren’s iced-over heart almost cracks when she first catches sight of Alita. Chiren immediately perceives Alita as a threat because she brings up all this pain she doesn’t want to confront. And she also starts to realize that Alita is going to disrupt 'Iron City' and challenge all the institutions that still exist there. Chiren cannot fully hold at bay the feelings Alita spurs in her. She experiences something like a thaw when she realizes she’s trying to kill someone who looks like her deceased daughter. It’s a moment when Chiren recognize she’s become all that she abhors. And from that moment forward, things move in a different direction. Chiren has allied herself with one of the darkest forces in 'Iron City'; Vector, who has amassed great influence as the city’s top broker of cyborg parts. Vector, who's 100% human, views himself as an elite and looks down upon the striving masses of 'Iron City'. Vector has fully absorbed that only way to win in 'Iron City' is to prey upon the weak. He’d rather be a king in hell than be at the bottom of the totem pole in heaven. His need to stay on top makes Alita an immediate adversary. Vector will do anything in his power to not lose his status. He craves control, and Alita’s way too much of a wild card. Still, though Vector lives better than most in 'Iron City', the truth is that he’s given up his freedom in exchange, allowing himself to be overtaken by the mysterious Nova (Eiza González), an entity on Zalem with the ability to inhabit Vector’s body. Vector is a villain but it turns out he’s really just following orders. The plans are all being dictated by Nova and Vector is sadly just his pawn. Alita soon learns she is not the only cyborg in 'Iron City'. In fact, large portions of Iron City’s denizens have cyborg parts. But what she does not know is that she will become the target of the city’s most feared cyborg, the colossal Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley). A fallen star of the 'Motorball' games, raised in the sewers of 'Iron City', Grewishka has never known anything but darkness and fighting for whatever he can get, which along with his super-charged frame of parts, makes him the ultimate henchman for Vector. His body goes through several iterations; growing larger and larger each time he must be rebuilt, becoming a massive metal gargoyle, but always plastered with his synthetic face, a reminder of the human within. The only way that he actually derives happiness is through having this enormous, powerful body and the only way he can find self-esteem is by abusing others. That psychology runs deep in him. Also posing a grave danger to Alita is the total replacement cyborg Zapan (Ed Skrein), with his sleek, high-tech body replete with synthetic skin. Zapan is most renowned for his 'Damascus Blade', an ancient 'URM'-built sword that can slice through armor like butter. He's an ostentatious, almost theatrical person. Most hunter-warriors are dirty and rusty, but Zapan prides himself on his ornate body.  He’s a dangerous mix of ego and insecurity. From the earliest stages of imagining "Alita", the film puts audiences inside the tumult of 'Iron City', a 26th Century city reeling from war 300 years prior and but also pulsing with life. 'Iron City' is much more a character itself. The film also envisions a deeply layered place of abundant contrasts, at once a cyborg-filled 'Wild West' of rampant crime and bounty hunters, but also a place where Alita experiences the thrill of discovery, love, elation, street life and the inspiration to change the city for the better. No matter how tough times have become in 'Iron City', the human instinct for fun, for art, for achievement and for joy still runs rampant. 'Iron City' is the place that people have come from all over the world to find sanctuary. So it’s an ad hoc kind of slum superimposed on the high-tech world that existed there before the war. It’s dangerous but it also has this amazing, chaotic energy. 'Iron City' also evokes a whole history of evolution and devolution, with hints of sophisticated technology falling into disarray. You can feel the disparity between the technology that's created before the war but is still in use, and the living conditions that people now enjoy. 'Iron City' is presented as an equatorial city, somewhere in 'South America', though more a melting pot than representative of a singular nation. 'Iron City' has a futuristic culture unlike any you’ve seen before.We’ve seen so much rain-slicked, neon-lit sci-fi and the fact is, you can't top 'Blade Runner' in that regard. The film creates a dusty, sundrenched look that suggests that life goes on in this place despite the oppression people are living. If there's one obsession that unites the people of 'Iron City' it's 'Motorball'; the glam and brutal gladiatorial sport whose champions are the heroes of an otherwise desperate city. The game takes place on rocket-propelled wheels, as hulking cyborgs fitted with chains, spikes, blades and armor race at 100-mph through the hairpin turns of a trap-filled track designed to damage cyborg parts. Those who win at 'Motorball' not only attain rock star status in 'Iron City' but a chance to ascend to 'Zalem' forever. Everyone in 'Iron City' watches 'Motorball'. Kids play street 'Motorball', which is how Alita is first introduced to the sport. Later, with her 'Berserker' body, Alita tries out for the 2nd League; the minors of 'Iron City Motorball'. It’s all new to Alita but she eventually becomes the 'LeBron James' of 'Motorball'. 'Motorball' is just a game, but things quickly turn from a game to a hunt sequence as the cyborgs try to annihilate Alita.    Even when a cyborg’s body has been damaged beyond repair, the human brain can live on and be connected to a new body, which is why Dr. Ido is able to save Alita. But Alita has no clue who she's, where she comes from, or what her life story. When Ido rebuilds her, Alita has no memory. She’s completely open and curious about a world that’s new to her. But as she finds out more about herself, she becomes a more complex character, one who's not only looking for who she was but must decide who she wants to be. Alita’s innate fearlessness, programmed into her long ago when she was built on the human space colony known as 'URM' ('United Republic Of Mars'). Alita has no fear for herself. It doesn’t matter how big or menacing an opponent, she just goes right at it. So this is about Alita’s bonds, betrayals and all she learns about human nature. At the center is always Alita’s human journey. And that’s also what Alita realizes. She may have lost much of her memory, but she has found her humanity, which is what counts. At it's core, this is the story of a girl who gets a second chance at life, and decides this time it will be about following her heart. Based on 'The Graphic Novel Series' by Yukito Kishiro, "Alita: Battle Angel"  re-imagines a mythical post-apocalyptical world as a photo-real city full not only of behemoth cyborgs, furiously fast sports spectacles and dark justice but also of compelling human stories. "Alita: Battle Angel" is a result of many combined imaginations synching up, but most of all it's meant to be Alita’s vision of 'Iron City'. You see this story through Alita’s eyes, eyes that have an innocence to them and see the beauty in things. The film creates something that feels very tactile, that’s immersive, that has unexpected moments, all the things you anticipate in a James Cameron movie. The fervor, risk-taking and fusing of mind and machine, that drove the making of Alita echo what Alita discovers about pouring your all into what you do. “Alita: Battle Angel" pushes a character to a place that’s pretty unique in film history. You not only come to believe in Alita as a human being, but you really get to feel like you are part of her experiences in this rich, new world of 'Iron City'. Plunging the audience full-bore into Alita’s deeply felt experiences of beauty and chaos after being reborn in Ido’s clinic is always central to the vision of the film. It's a fresh vision of the future mixed with thunderous action and themes of exploration, curiosity, self-discovery and a yearning for freedom. The tale of a young amnesiac cyborg, a universal story of discovery and identity and what really matters. The attraction is more the humanity of the story than it's 26th Century setting. The history of 'Iron City', and the gleaming presence of the paradisiacal 'Zalem' looming over it, so close yet ever unattainable, is rich with metaphors. Today, the cutting edge of medical prosthetics research is pioneering new ways for the human brain to both directly control and sense artificial limbs. But what if the fusion of mind and machine make such a quantum leap that it could grant humans the promise not just of restoration but of total reinvention? People have to replace limbs due to the effects of the worldwide plague. Then, it's a normal way of life for people to have replacement parts. There are no bad connotations to being a cyborg, it can even be a sign of wealth. The highest-end cyborgs are what are known a 'Total Replacements'. That’s when all you've left is an organic, human brain but your entire body has been replaced by parts that are stronger, faster, whatever you aspire to.  With "Alita: Battle Angel" comes a total sensorial immersion into a world of unbridled imagination, breathless action and visceral emotion. It's a combination of mutual zeal for world-building and empowered female heroines to push the possibilities of visual story-craft into a new zone. We're already living in an early iteration of a machine-reliant cyborg society. Even before the internet, we couldn’t live without electricity or technology, which makes us similar to cyborgs. We just accept it and try to live our lives, as cyborgs do in 'Iron City'. It only puts the emphasis on how can we be more human. Audiences emerges from theaters with an emotional connection to Alita and the movie rather than wondering how the immediacy of this photo-real world of the imagination was achieved. Times change, but many things stay the same. The film is sets hundreds of years in the future, but if you look back at life 400 years before today, people still sat in a chair to eat breakfast in the morning, just as we do.