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● (Release Info London schedule; February 28th, 2020, Empire, 5-6, Leicester Square, London WC2H 7NA, United Kingdom, 11:20 · 14:20 · 17:20 · 20:20) ● (Release Info London schedule; February 28th, 2020, Picturehouse Central, Piccadilly Circus, Corner of Great Windmill Street and, Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 7DH, United Kingdom, 15:20 · 18:30 · 21:25) "Dark Waters" "Dark Waters" tells the shocking and heroic story of Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), an attorney who risks his career and family to uncover a dark secret hidden by one of the world’s largest corporations and to bring justice to a community dangerously exposed for decades to deadly chemicals. Corporate environmental defense attorney Rob Billot has just made partner at his prestigious Cincinnati law firm in large part due to his work defending 'Big Chem' companies. He finds himself conflicted after he’s contacted by Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) and his brother Jim (Jim Azelvandre) ,two 'West Virginia' farmers, who believe that the local 'DuPont' plant is dumping toxic waste in the area landfill that is destroying their fields and killing their cattle. Hoping to learn the truth about just what's happening, Bilott, with help from his supervising partner in the firm, Tom Terp (Tim Robbins), files a complaint that marks the beginning of an epic 15-year fight; one that will not only test his relationship with his wife, Sarah (Anne Hathaway) but also his reputation, his health and his livelihood. Based on 'The New York Times Magazine' article, 'The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare', by Nathaniel Rich, "Dark Waters" chronicles the one-man crusade that sought justice for a community exposed for decades to toxins in it's own backyard. Defense attorney Rob Bilott has just made partner at his prestigious Cincinnati firm in large part due to his work defending some of the biggest names in 'Big Chem'. When two small-town 'West Virginia' farmers ask for his help investigating the local chemical plant for purportedly killing their livestock, he balks, explaining that he represents chemical companies, not plaintiffs. Yet, something about their story stays with Rob, especially when he realizes one of his fondest summers as a boy was spent at a neighboring farm. During a drive to the area, Rob’s observations don’t quite align with his memories; there's something beneath the surface of this corner of 'Hill Country'. He also realizes that nearly everyone in the community owes much to the local chemical plant in Parkersburg, operated by 'DuPont'. 'The Tennants' believe that whatever 'DuPont' is dumping in their landfill is polluting their creek and has wiped out their herd of nearly 200 cattle. Still, many of their neighbors cling to the idea that the company continues to look out for them, as it has seemingly done for years. Supported by his supervising partner in the firm, Tom Terp, Bilott uses his intimate understanding of how chemical companies work. He files a complaint, undertaking a targeted suit that will uncover just what's happening in Parkersburg. Thousands of personnel hours and years later, Bilott finds that his obsession to ferret out the truth has not only jeopardized his family, particularly his relationship with his wife, Sarah but also his reputation, his health and his livelihood. Just how much is he, and by association, those around him, prepared to lose to bring the truth to light? What's the price for justice? "Dark Waters" tells the unbelievable 'David vs. Goliath' story of an attorney with unwavering conviction who fought for decades to obtain justice for a community victimized by a corporation driven by greed. It all begins on January 6th, 2016, when 'The New York Times Magazine' published Nathaniel Rich’s riveting chronicle of the work of Cincinnati attorney Rob Bilott. Employed at the law firm of 'Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP', Bilott becomes an unlikely crusader who bravely uncovered the dangers of a chemical that had been contaminating for years; and to punish one corporate giant responsible for marketing it's uses. 'The Tennants', a family who had farmed the same sprawling property for generations, begin losing their cattle in startling ways. The animals, once docile like pets, turned ugly and aggressive. Lesions covered their hides, their eyes are rimmed with red, white slime dripped from their mouths, their teeth blackened. When one black calf died, it's eye is electric blue. Convinced that the cause is toxic runoff from the nearby 'Dry Run Landfill', where 'The Washington Works' factory, owned by 'DuPont', disposed of it's waste, Wilbur Tennant sought answers for years to no avail. Desperate, he finally turns to Bilott, who had spent time as a child near 'The Tennants' farm in 'Parkersburg, West Virginia'. Bilott helps figure out what should be going into the landfill and look at the permits; he finds out what chemicals are actually going in and what might be exceeding their limits. After nearly a year, Bilott discoverers just what they're dealing with; an unregulated chemical that didn’t fit into that word. The substance in question is perfluorooctanoic acid or 'PFOA', which dates to 1951, almost two decades before 'The Environmental Protection Agency' was established in 1970. Unfortunately, a lot of the federal rules and statutes that started coming out in the 1970s were primarily focused on new chemicals, things that were being produced and generated after that point in time. By 1990, the company had dumped 7,100 tons of 'PFOA' sludge into 'Dry Run Landfill'. From that point on, Bilott makes it his mission to secure justice not just for 'The Tennants', but also for anyone who had been exposed to 'PFOA; or forever chemicals as they’re called, since they don’t break down and stay in the subject’s system. In "Dark Waters" it's all anchored in the character of Rob Bilott, the unlikely hero par excellence, whose presumptions about corporate practices are turned on their head in his discoveries about 'DuPont". Mistrustful, unpartisan and constitutionally guarded by nature, Rob Bilott, like most classic whistleblowers, is already a solitary figure when the story begins. He’s a man caught between two worlds; he has roots in small-town 'West Virginia', where he spent portions of his childhood, but he’s also an attorney at one of Cincinnati’s most high-profile corporate law films charged with defending clients from lawsuits, not filing suits against them. He's living in a class that's's above the one he grew up in, and there are class clashes going on within his family. All of this makes for a balancing act; he's straddling this echelon of lawyers who are all really well-bred and well-schooled, and he's not really a part of that. And then there’s this schism of plaintiff/defense attorney. All these dichotomies is why Rob Bilott is able to bring down one of the biggest corporations in the world. The more you can layer in those complexities, just the better story it's, and the greater achievement it's when our hero does what he set out to do. At the outset, Rob really believes that corporations are people and in the concept of their self-governance. He reasons that this must be some simple oversight. What ends up happening is he uncovers this contamination and cover-up, perpetrated by 'DuPont' and spanning 40 years. Wilbur Tennant is tough. Even when Rob has completely put his job and reputation and family and mental health on the line to take on this case, Wilbur isn't content to just get a settlement from 'DuPont'. He wants the truth to get out. He wants this to be known to the world. Wilbur has a very simple life and a very strong moral understanding and balance of what’s right and what’s wrong. He’s passionate and fiery. There’s a simplicity to that; it’s foundational to his and the overall story. He has a natural human reaction to being lied to, to being wronged. His life has been completely upended, if not destroyed, by the corruption of this company. He sees this wrong done not just to him, but an entire community and the natural world. His only response is to take on this entity more powerful than himself. And true to form, the events that unfold only further that isolation. That this isolation, this stigma, is mirrored in the story’s precipitating force, Wilbur Tennant, and can be seen spreading across the network of interdependent players, crossing class differences, afflicting public life, family life, church life in it's wake, describes it’s unique insidious contagion. Despite these bonds, taking on powerful interests will shrink your world and rattle your faculties. Sarah is a very specific. She understands that her husband’s passion and commitment to this case is important to support, but it takes a great toll on the family. Sarah is vivacious, powerful. She has so much strength, and she’s full of contradictions. You can’t tell everything about her just by one aspect of her. Rob finds an unexpected source of support for his quest in his supervising partner at 'Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP', Tom Terp. Although the two weren’t necessarily close friends, Terp admired Bilott’s work ethic, and his initial reluctance over Bilott taking 'The Tennants’ case gave way when he was presented with evidence of wrong-doing. As Rob’s boss, he conveys what’s at stake for Rob. This is nothing less than his standing as a partner. He also very subtly provides a moral compass when he permits Rob to take on the case. You get the sense that what’s central for 'Taft' is the law. The law needs to be respected, and if that starts to get messed with, as lawyers, even corporate defense attorneys, they’re not going to stand for it. So, in very economical strokes, Tom represents those two possibly opposing forces. Tom Terp is the exception to the rule in corporate culture, which tends to protect itself. People don’t usually cross lines, generally. They tend to remain silent or willfully ignorant of information that might challenge their worldview and their power structure. Tom is someone that dared to go against that. He isn't a knight in shining armor. He's a man faced with an illegality that was undeniable, and he chose to go against his company’s culture to hold 'DuPont' accountable, not an easy thing to do. Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber) is a company man, in thrall to his own conviction. Other attorneys enter the picture, including plaintiff’s attorney Harry Deitzler (Bill Pullman). Harry is a bit brash, he’s a big personality. But he's a strategist with tactics. Harry is a version of an ambulance chaser, personal injury lawyer. Harry had been on 'The Parkersburg City Council' for 12 years. He has the ability to bring people together from all sides; that makes him a perfect candidate to be on the legal team. Darlene Kiger (Mare Winningham) served as lead plaintiffs in a 2001 class-action lawsuit against 'DuPont' over dangerously high levels of 'PFOA', also known as 'C8', in 'The Parkersburg' region’s drinking water supplies. She brings her grounded wisdom, warmth and gravitas to the character. She's very brave, to take this stand amidst gossip, stares and comments, in a community indebted to 'DuPont'. James (William Jackson Harper) is a junior associate at Bilott’s firm who believes the attorney’s work should cease. He's someone trying to climb the ladder in this corporate defense world that's now suddenly in ethically murky waters, we’re looking to prosecute the very people we serve. James role is to actually push to shut the case down. He thinks it’s a dangerous violation of their ethics to pursue this. It becomes divisive for the character, and for some others within the firm. This is the late ’90s, early 2000s. It’s still a really ambiguous time period that we all kind of remember but have forgotten at the same time. Who had what technology, like which cellphones? Televisions? What would be on desks in lawyers’ offices? It’s also interesting because 'Taft', as with other big firms, were beginning to brand themselves, advertising for legal services. So even they're switching tradition. There’s a lens we view society through, which picks up people’s differences within class structures, but we want to concentrate on the humanity that runs through everyone. We’ve been watching the environmental mandates for water, air, endangered species, and of course climate change be systematically unraveled, and so everything is at stake right now. The ultimate message is that we need each other. No one else is going to do it for us. No one else is going to make the world a better place. It's us together. And this story about water transcends all political divides, ideological beliefs, sex, race, religion. The film tells a gripping story based on the explosive exposé that uncovered an urgent public health crisis and corruption at the highest levels. We all know inherently how important it's for us to have clean water, and it's by framing these massive problems in these kinds of ways that we will see real positive change in the world. It’s a tremendous opportunity to be able to make people understand the nature and extent of this public health threat. But not only that; how does something like this happen in 'The United States'? In what we should be thinking of as the most sophisticated country on earth, how could a massive worldwide contamination problem like this not only occur, but originate here in 'The United States'? This film can convey to people in an understandable way that not only is this happening, but how it happens. Like most people we're astonished and outraged by the story Rob Bilott, the tenacious corporate defense attorney, unwittingly uncovers; the story of 'DuPont' and 'Teflon'. It clearly describes a recent, ongoing saga of corporate abuse with searing cultural and political relevance. Certainly, abuses of power, threats and cover-up, whether corporate, industrial or governmental, will be revealed. In fact they're the narrative expectation, often looming offscreen in advance of the stories. But the whistleblower film’s true focus is on the little guy, his process, and the peril, psychic, emotional, if not mortal, faced by that individual who stands up to the truth. This specificity of time and place can be feel in a visual language in which a cool observational style links the contrasting locations in an attempt to underscore their interdependence. What emerges is a complex, at times contradictory American landscape, though one in which the lines of economic power are clearly drawn; even as they're confronted with their limits. It's often as a result of these contradictions, or improbabilities, that 'The Wilbur Tennant Case' and the historic class action that followed could ever have been waged. The unlikelihood of a corporate defense attorney working for the chemical industry reversing his sites and taking on a corporate behemoth like 'DuPont' is precisely what provided Rob with the kind of time and resources required to succeed. So without the medical monitoring ruling in 'West Virginia', or the dual-state strategy linking Ohio law with 'West Virginia', it’s hard to imagine any of these remarkable outcomes; or the world ever learning about the dangers of forever chemicals like 'PFOA', lurking in every corner of our lives. Rather than concluding with the rewards of a win, it depicts the act of fighting as on ongoing condition, a primer for living imperfectly between knowledge and despair. In "Dark Waters", what begins as a regional and national contamination of air and water systems results in a global contamination of human bloodstreams, in effect, materializing our interconnectivity as residents of the planet, if not the unelected victims of capitalist and ideological systems. But in the massiveness of this manmade catastrophe we're invariably linked, and our knowledge and awareness are what connect us to one another, in what's both an unending struggle for justice and a fight for our lives.

(Release Info London schedule; July 3rd, 2019, Curzon Aldgate, 2 Goodman's Fields, Canter Way, Whitechapel, London E1 8PS, United Kingdom, 8:50pm) https://www.curzoncinemas.com/aldgate/film-info/midsommar "Midsommar" Dani Ardor (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynar) are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy befalls Dani, grief keeps them together, and Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer adventure in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From director Ari Aster comes a dread-soaked cinematic fairy tale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight. Dani is a young American woman navigating personal loss as her relationship with her boyfriend Christian crumbles. At the outset of "Midsommar", Dani’s relationship is on the rocks, as Christian selfishly places his academic pursuits and male friendships before Dani’s emotional needs. Then tragedy strikes. She suffers a devastating loss and becomes orphaned, left with nothing in the way of family except Christian. The closest person to her is this guy who's on the brink of leaving her. He’s decent enough that he doesn’t leave, given the situation. But it’s a matter of duty for Christian, and Dani is well aware of not being embraced by his friends. Those friends include Josh (William Jackson Harper), a 'PhD' student whose interests lean toward anthropology and folklore; Mark (Will Poulter), a caustic and chauvinistic goofball with negligible boundaries; and Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), a Swedish exchange student who has invited his friends on a summer trip to his ancestral home in remote Scandinavia. After initially concealing the trip from her, Christian feels pressured to invite her along, much to the chagrin of his close-knit boys club. Josh, Mark, and Pelle simply want to cut loose with their own kind, threatened by anything that will distract them from their personal and selfsh goals, whether it’s furthering their academic glory or getting laid in Sweden. Eventually Christian caves, inviting Dani on the trip. She accepts a false invitation, knowing Christian’s friends don’t like her, and from here the movie becomes a question of how this toxic dynamic will resolve itself. He’s staying in the relationship out of obligation, and she’s clinging to him as a result, sensing he wants to leave, but also knowing she can’t survive on her own. They’re at a standstill. Their relationship should have ended a long while ago. Despite circumstances and the need for comfort, it continues. Complicating the dynamic is an unspoken academic rivalry between Josh, a natural-born scholar utilizing the trip to do research for his 'PhD' thesis on Pelle’s ancestors, 'The Hårga', and Christian, who doesn’t seem to have a genuine affinity for academia. The film establishes a quiet tension between them that explodes when Christian decides he's also going to write his dissertation on the customs and rituals of 'The Hårga'. As multiple relationships unravel over the course of the film, it becomes clear that everyone in this boys club is just out for themselves; they’re not even true friends to each other. From it's inception "Midsommar" is a horror movie, instead viewing the project as an epic adventure unfolding in a strange hermetic world. When 'The Americans' enter this landscape, they walk through pearly gates into a new realm. Arriving in Sweden, Dani and company travel to remote 'Hälsingland', where Pelle’s tribe is in the midst of celebrating a purification ritual occurring once every 90 years. Joining 'The Americans' are Simon (Archie Madewke) and Connie (Ellora Torchia), British travelers of color, an important clue to one of "Midsommar’s" more sinister undercurrents. After consuming psychedelic mushrooms, the new arrivals journey into the forest, eventually wandering through a wooden portal into what appears to be a shimmering fantasy world. It's a journey into the heart of darkness as an American couple, Dani and Christian, find themselves unexpectedly drawn into the world of a mysterious and dangerous primeval cult during a vacation getaway with their friends in a bucolic, hidden Swedish village. As Dani journeys from emotional neediness to questionable empowerment, the film examines a rich array of ideas, from personal fidelity to social influence to cultural legacy. Lying at the heart of "Midsommar" is the ancestral 'Hårga' village, a series of rustic buildings including a bunkhouse, kitchen, and temple set across a vast field nestled beneath an idyllic tree-lined ridge. As the outsiders acclimate to their new surroundings, participating in meals, ceremonies, and dances with the sixty-odd members of the tribe, they come to discover a close-knit, seemingly benevolent and even jubilant cult of revelers, each clad in customized white linen uniforms bearing runic symbols. But amidst the glaring and relentless sunlight, things soon take a darker turn. A young woman who travels to the ends of the earth, only to find herself indoctrinated into a chilling pagan cult. What appears to be a sunny paradise populated with friendly villagers frolicking in nature quickly shifts towards something sinister. As Dani battles her own inner demons, and Christian plunges deeper into the mysteries of 'Hårga' in the hope of achieving academic glory, the couple find themselves submerged in values, traditions and rituals that are disturbingly different from their own. It's a story of a woman who's losing her mind and her bearings, and it's very interesting to put her in a stressful situation where the sun is always up, and there’s no distinguishing between night and day. There's thematic resonance, given that Dani is not really directly examining her situation. Arriving near the end of the film is another engrossing and evocative piece, depicting Dani as she participates in 'The May Queen' festivities, alongside young women from the village who compete for the honor of being crowned 'May Queen'. They dance in tandem until they collapse one by one from exhaustion, and only the winner remains. "Midsommar" has always been a kind of horror movie about codependence. A dark fairy tale about a grieving woman who becomes transformed in a landscape of ancient pagan rituals, "Midsommar" centers on Dani’s gradual indoctrination as she pulls away from Christian and the turmoil of her past, toward a new life in a new family, inside a distant tribe and culture that's distinctly matriarchal. The film begins in the world of men, as Christian and his fellow academics jockey for professional success while making crude sexual jokes about the women in their lives, Dani among them. But as it opens up into the world of 'The Hårga', the story becomes increasingly female-dominated, culminating in a fertility rite that's among the most powerful and timely screen images in recent memory, a defiant statement on female agency in a time when men still routinely attempt to control women’s bodies. There’s a balance between men and women in 'Hårga', but women clearly have more power. Some of the guys in the movie are jerks. That said, this eventually reveals itself to be a story of female empowerment, albeit one that's bittersweet and not exactly clear-cut. Dani is empowered; but she’s also not. As 'The Americans' are guided through the archaic customs of 'The Hårga', Dani receives acceptance, empowerment, and even deification among the people of Pelle’s tribe, finding herself reborn through their ancient rituals. She begins to allow herself to hurt and feel all the overwhelming emotions she has been suppressing. It’s the first time she listens to her pain, and accepts it. It’s a perverse wish fulfillment story. It’s like this warped, fantastical version of what you might see and hear in a rural 'Hälsingland' village during a midsummer festival. On the costumes you see a combination of 'The Runic Alphabet and 'The Affekt Alphabet'. As a character grows up in the cult, he or she's assigned a specific rune, which corresponds with their unique background. 'Hårga' swoops in to give Dani what she's missing in her life and also take away what she hasn’t had the courage to eliminate. Dani, gets a taste of 'The Hårga’s' true motives, to surreptitiously recruit select outsiders into their customs and way of life. It’s no coincidence that several characters, including Josh, Simon and Connie are people of color stumbling into the overwhelmingly white environment of 'Hälsingland'. But it’s Dani and Christian, white 'Anglo Saxon Protestant Americans', who are initiated into the darker mysteries of 'Hårga'. In "Midsommar", the true villain is not the villagers themselves, who are merely acting out the same rituals they've for centuries, but rather their ideas, values, and customs, which find a new home inside Dani as the story reaches it's incendiary climax. That Dani finds herself empowered and transformed by these outmoded traditions is what lends the film it's unique power and horror; we don’t often sense poisonous ideas circulating in the world until they're already planted inside us. Once they take root, it can be too late. This film is based on James George Frazer’s 'The Golden Bough', a globe-hopping anthropological study of paganism as it yielded to 'Christianity', to the spiritual traditions of philosophers such as 'Rudolf Steiner'. We get a grasp on how people in rural and religious Scandinavian communities lived, from 500 years ago up until the present day. The film looks at the natural elements, how people took care of nature, including plants and animals, as well as the structural elements and the art that surrounded them, including wall paintings. Culture is very strong in these parts, we get a sense of how they communicated, which is more often than not through music. As we move darker, we find ourselves immersed in more nefarious customs, including Viking torture methods. Juggling darkness and light. The screenplay inserts a group of modern young Americans into the alien environment of an eerie cult performing a once-in-a-millennium series of rituals during a summertime festival in remote northern Sweden. The film concocts a tale of escalating horror and dread that unfurls in glorious, unrepentant daylight, during a time of year in Sweden when nightfall never completely arrives, plunging the outsiders into an additional layer of disorientation that, as "Midsommar" reveals it's deeper mysteries, coalesces into a hallucinatory freak-out. We've to look at it like an anthropologist might approach 'Candy Land'. In "Midsommar", every shot is a puzzle, with all parts moving individually, eventually becoming an entire field of orchestrated parts. Being part of the imagination is terrifying, and just as exciting. The initial image that sort of catalyzed "Midsommar" involved the sacrificial burning of a temple. Fitting the ‘breakup movie’ into a new setting, putting an operatic spin on the rote sort of cathartic ending we’ve seen in those movies before, you know, where the jilted protagonist burns the box containing all the items Dani collects over the course of the relationship she’s finally liberated herself from. So that by the end, even though this tribe remains a mystery, it’s also intricately defined. "Midsommar" pushes the horror genre in new and unpredictable directions. An apocalyptic adventure on a grand scale. The film constructs mesmerizing and unique world from the ground up, replete with it's own language, history, mythology, and traditions. It's a dark and hallucinatory fairy tale that's as thought provoking as it's viscerally disquieting.

(Release Info London schedule; April 28th, 2019, Electric Cinema, Notting Hill 191 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, England, W11 2ED, 10:00 AM) "Woman At War" Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) declares a one-woman-war on the aluminium industry. She's prepared to risk everything to protect the pristine 'Icelandic Highlands' she loves. Until an orphan unexpectedly enters her life. Halla is a fifty-year-old independent woman. But behind the scenes of a quiet routine, she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist. Known to others only by her alias 'The Woman Of The Mountain', Halla secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry. As Halla’s actions grow bolder, from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage, she succeeds in pausing the negotiations between 'The Icelandic Government' and the corporation building a new aluminium smelter. But right as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that changes everything. Her application to adopt a child has finally been accepted and there's a little girl waiting for her in Ukraine. As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and saviour of 'The Highlands' to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack to deal the aluminium industry a crippling blow. "Woman At War" is a classic narrative film with a clear story-arc for the main character. Actually it almost irritates how politically correct everything seems today. But that could maybe change tomorrow. In this case, Halla’s character comes organically through the story and what the drama of telling that story demands. Halla is a common name in Iceland, and one that carries with it quite a lot of historical and cultural reference. Halla and Eyvindur were the last outlaws in Iceland’s history, who are still famous for surviving on the run in the highlands for over 20 years back in 'The Seventeenth Century'. They're real mountain people, sheep thieves and rebels, and many stories have been told about their exploits and struggles. Around a century ago 'The Icelandic' poet and playwright Jóhann Sigurjónsson wrote a play about them, 'Eyvindur Of The Mountains' that reached the international stage and toured successfully in several countries. And exactly 100 years ago in 1918 Victor Sjöström, a Swedish filmmaker. made a film out of the legend called "The Outlaw And His Wife", in which he played the lead role himself. So the name 'Halla' does come with some nice baggage, at least for Icelandic audiences. This movie is meant to be a heroic tale set in a world of imminent threat. A heroic tale told as an adventure. A serious fairy tale told with a smile. The hero serves in this world as a kind of 'Artemis', the protector of the untouched and wild. Alone, facing a quickly changing planet, she assumes the role of saving mother earth and it's future generations. The point of view is very close to the hero’s, which is how and why we access her inner life. The hero is a musician. The hero is saving the world. The film has music. The musicians performing the music are visible. They're the inner forces that are battling within the hero’s soul. But there are certain things you've to do, even if they're dificult and dangerous. Otherwise you're not really a person, just a little shit. This is a film about a woman striving to be a real person. The ancient Greeks believed that creative individuals were possessed by a demon or rather that they're followed by a demon who inspired them with good ideas. That’s why Socrates genius was down to his good demon. A daimon could therefore be a muse of sorts, whispering good advice into the hero’s ear. In Rome this idea was transferred to the genius, which each individual had as a kind of guardian angel, following him from the cradle to the grave. Some Romans were less fortunate than others when it came to their genius and would blame it for their mishaps and bitter fates. And just like a Greek chorus they can address the hero as well as the audience, and emphasise important decisions with a powerful dance act. But there's another reason why to make the performance of the music visible, and that has to do with the idea of alienation. This idea goes back a long way in the history of theatre and show business. You could say that every time a musician is on camera playing the score, the film puts inverted commas around the scene, reminding us that we're right in the middle of a fiction and that behind all the pretence is some message or conclusion that the audience member must come to based on the spectacle. You could say that through this device comes to an agreement with the audience about what sort of film this is and what laws it abides by. Perhaps we need a creative helping hand to be willing to submit ourself to that sort of a tale. "Woman At War" shows humanity on the losing end of an efort to tame or dominate nature. It's a radical failure or foolishness. It’s very clear that nature’s rights should in fact be considered on the same level as human rights, and that’s a thread runs through the film. It seems evident that nature’s rights should be strongly protected in all constitutions and by local and international laws. We need to collectively realize that untouched naturehas an intrinsic right and necessity to exist, regardless of our human needs or our economic system. A more rational system in which we humans, if we wanted to spoil or use unblemished 'Nature' for our own needs, we would need to go through a process, maybe something like a trial, in order to be allowed to do that. These issues are really about the common good and the long-term interests of our existence as a whole. Just like the ability to take a person’s freedom away and keep them inside a prison for life. Now is the right time to look at this kind of approach. Add to this the strange paradox in some of our societies, 'The State', which in democratic countries is an instrument created by the people for the people, can be so easily manipulated by special interests and against what’s obviously the common welfare. When we look at the big, existential environmental challenge we face, and what has been happening, this becomes crystal clear. It can also sometimes be a good breeding ground for comedy, but in many other countries there's only tragedy. It even seems that state-power in certain countries is actively fighting for the other side. Until we come to the situation where the environmentalist becomes an enemy of the state.

(Release Info London schedule; October 18th, 2020) (Curzon Victoria, 58 Victoria Street, LONDON SW1E 6QW, United Kingdom 14:00) (ODEON Covent Garden, 135 Shaftesbury Avenue, LONDON WC2H 8AH, United Kingdom, 14:30●17:30) (Vue Cinema London - West End (Leicester Square), Leicester Square, 3 Cranbourn Street, LONDON WC2H 7AL, United Kingdom, 15:00) (Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue, LONDON W1D 5DY, United Kingdom, 15:00) (ODEON Luxe Haymarket, 11/18 Panton Street, LONDON SW1Y 4DP, United Kingdom, 15:30) "I AM Greta" The story of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is told through compelling, never before-seen footage in this documentary following her rise to prominence and her global impact as she sparks school strikes and protests around the world. Starting with her one-person school strike for climate action outside 'The Swedish Parliament', the film follows Greta, a shy student with Asperger’, in her rise to prominence and her galvanizing global impact as she sparks school strikes around the world. The film culminates with her extraordinary wind-powered voyage across 'The Atlantic Ocean' to speak at 'The UN Climate Action Summit' in New York City. In 2018, 15-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg held a school strike outside her country’s 'Parliament' building in Stockholm. At first she sat alone, handing out information and answering questions from passersby. Slowly, others began to join her, and within months she had sparked a worldwide movement. "I AM Greta" offers a personal and inspiring glimpse inside Greta’s path to becoming an internationally known environmental activist. Shot in the style of cinéma vérité and with support from 'The Thunberg' family, cameras capture Greta’s meetings with government leaders, headline-making public appearances, and global protests. But they also depict Greta’s life outside of the moments visible on news channels worldwide; laughing at home with her family, writing impassioned speeches, and trying to handle the mounting stress of nonstop travel, public scrutiny and becoming the face of the climate change cause. Greta, who has 'Asperger’s Syndrome', impresses everyone from 'UN' delegates, to 'Pope Francis', to 'Hollywood A-listers' with her intricate knowledge of climate issues and unwavering dedication. However, as Greta’s celebrity grows, so does her frustration with politicians who don’t heed her warnings about climate change. As someone who thrives on routines and appreciates solitude, the unpredictable schedule and global visibility takes it's toll. Greta’s father, Svante, travels alongside his daughter and becomes deeply concerned by the hateful words, and even death threats, aimed at her by pundits, politicians and climate-change deniers. The film culminates with Greta’s arduous two-week journey by sailboat to 'The UN Climate Action Summit' in New York City, where she’s greeted by crowds chanting her name. Today, her 'Fridays For Future' movement has organized climate strikes on every continent except 'Antarctica'. When we first meet Greta, she's plans to do a sit-down strike to protest for the climate because she feels that no one is doing anything. The national election is coming up in Sweden and she wants to show how important this issue is. People start to stop by and ask questions, and she's very articulate. After three weeks, she decides to continue past the election, striking every Friday. Suddenly, the movement is starting to spread to other parts of Sweden. In the beginning, it's so hard to know. Is Greta going to be a lead figure in this movement, or is this film going to be more about the movement? She has this special perspective on the world. She isn't interested in always framing things nicely and being polite. Some moments aren’t easy to watch, like when Greta is having a tough time toward the end of the boat trip or when she’s reading hateful comments made about her on social media. The film captures the fullness of how it feels being Greta and being an activist dealing with this very hard issue. It’s incredible to see Greta evolve from her one-person protests in Sweden into a global icon. It’s timing, in the sense that the world has waited for someone to express frustration on the topic of climate change for a long time now. Nothing has happened, this panic is rising. And as you see in the film, she has this way to express it that just syncs with where climate change is at the moment. The years of constructive, creative, happy thinking, we’ve those years, and we’ve those figures. Now we’re moving into a period when the situation doesn’t look like that anymore. Anyone who watches the film can understand that young people aren't school striking just for fun. They're protesting because we don't have a choice, but sadly we're still stuck on square one. The changes and the level of awareness needed are nowhere to be seen today. All that we ask for is for our society to treat the climate crisis as a crisis, and give us a safe future. The film shows just how far that's from happening right now. It shows that the urgency of the scientific message isn't getting through. The world is waking up, and change is coming whether you like it or not. It’s a movie which brings you into the eye of the storm. Of course the movement has been affected by not being able to strike, Greta and her peers are very keen on following the scientific advice and have thus not done physical demonstrations. However we believe that the long term effect of what we now see with the response to 'Covid' is that young people will find that suddenly there's a crisis reaction and billions of euros and dollars available but for years they have been told that the climate crisis is too expensive and hard to deal with. Again the political system shows that it works short term and betrays future generations which can lead to even stronger reactions from activists in the future. Sometimes it’s good to see the world in black and white, because that’s how you can really see what’s uncomfortable. After seeing this movie, people get some extra respect for people that are different and people that have that style of saying what they think and pointing at problems instead of just shoving them under the carpet. We should embrace these people, because we need them to show what’s wrong. Also, the film highlights the growing gap between worsening climate impacts and warnings from scientists on the one hand, and the words and actions of world leaders on the other.

(Release Info London schedule; August 25th, 2019, Cineworld Leicester Square, 5-6 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7NA, United Kingdom, 6:30 pm) http://www.frightfest.co.uk/2019films/index.html#sunday "Ready Or Not" "Ready Or Not" follows Grace (Samara Weaving), a young bride, as she joins her new husband’s Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien) rich, eccentric family in a time-honored tradition that turns into a lethal game with everyone fighting for their survival.   In "Ready Or Not", the stakes are high as a newlywed literally fights for her life, trying to survive her in-laws in a deadly game of hide and seek on her wedding night. Grace is a spirited young woman from modest beginnings who has been wooed by wealthy Alex. Their 18-month courtship is culminating in a marriage ceremony at his family estate, where the mansion is imposing and so is 'The Le Domas Clan', headed by Alex’s parents Tony (Henry Czerny) and Becky (Andie MacDowell). With a fortune built on board games, this eccentric family is bound by time-honored traditions. The rich really are different, Alex’s brother Daniel (Adam Brody) cautions Grace before she heads down the aisle. The wedding goes off without a hitch, but the carefully planned celebration has a detour mapped out for the bride. Grace, still in her wedding dress, unsuspectingly joins her new husband and in-laws for a midnight gathering to play what they describe as a traditional family game. As a new member of the family, she must draw a card from a deck to determine which game they will all play, as danger lingers in the air, Grace unsuspectingly chooses the rare 'Hide And Seek' card. With only a few moments head start, Grace is to leave Alex behind and stay hidden and quiet somewhere on the premises. The others fan out to find her before sunrise. Soon Grace makes the terrifying discovery that she's being hunted in lethal blood sport. Pushed to her limits physically and emotionally, Grace becomes hellbent on not only staying alive, but attempts to change the game forever by fighting back in any way she can. 'The Le Domas Family' is dysfunctional and deadly. On day one, with a bow-and-arrow being pointed at you, followed by a face being bashed in. Nice to meet you! The film places a young woman into next-level conflict with her new in-laws, a nocturnal fight for survival. Grace is the bride whose shocking discoveries about her new in-laws galvanize her into action. The weapon of choice for Grace in this scenario is, whatever she can get her hands on; yielding some nasty and funny surprises. The audience’s entry into the family’s bizarre backroom rituals comes through the story’s fish out of water heroine, Grace, whose unfortunate destiny is to play the family game to determine her fate. You pick the card and that's your fate, but the card also picks you. There’s a little underlying message that the devil is seeking out people who are pure of heart, and Grace is just that. He can’t wait to get rid of her. But the devil didn’t count on Grace fighting back. There's a fearlessness to the way that she approaches all of her performances, and this movie is going to live or die. With Grace we're turning on it's head the horror genre trope of the final girl; where in many horror films, you've a cast of innocents stalked by one psycho and one final girl remaining to challenge the killer. But in "Ready Or Not" Grace is the only intended victim, one whom several people are hunting. In a lot of horror films women in danger are crying or screaming. This film turns that on it's head and make Grace a bad-ass. What drives her to fight back to survive until the sun rises isn’t fear, although that definitely enters into it. Her fighting back has to be part of her personality as well as her actions. Even when Grace is in her most vulnerable and scared moments, there’s a confidence in the way that she approaches it which maintains believability. She has a choice to make. Is she going to be able to rise to the occasion? Is she going to be able to survive? The journey that Grace goes on pulls you in. Filthy rich and fully loaded, Becky is the matriarch of 'The Le Domas Clan' dominant and willing to pack a punch. She has a cool head and is able to keep things on track as things horribly spiral out of control. She’s very determined to see this through and also try to reestablish a relationship with her son, Alex. She's devoted to her family 100 percent, and they're who they're. She’s very protective of her family and wants things to work out; there's a deep love that she has for her son Alex, which grounds the story. Becky has a dark wit, but she's also the responsible one. No one plays dirtier than the ridiculously rich, and Tony Le Domas is no exception. He's the patriarch of 'The Le Domas Family'. Tony and Becky’s relationship is, he’s a little bit of a hothead and she’s constantly trying to keep him on track. There are things he will not let go. The camera might not be on Tony, and we might not have conversations with him, but he brings things to Tony in the background of a scene; it's so clear to him what the character called for. While 'The Le Domas' parents are reasonably secure in their perches, the next generation has to be a more conflicted group. Daniel is a dark and twisted son, who still carries with him childhood traumas from a previous family game gathering. Daniel brings a sense of humor to the story, so it isn't just darkness; he's very aware of not being one-note. The question within Daniel is there a good person in there? In "Ready Or Not", there’s a nice blend of what’s said and what’s not said. Alex is Grace’s newly minted husband. He's a prodigal son. He’s torn between his love for his family, his love for Grace and this horrible deal with the devil his family has made. Alex is the most complicated character in the story. He’s a man who thinks he can have everything without sacrificing anything. Alex definitely has his own moral compass. He's already conflicted when we meet him because he doesn’t really know how to broach the subject of his family’s traditions to Grace. Also, he’s used to the lifestyle that his family has provided for him even though at the same time he shuns it. There are moments where you see him fighting what’s underneath what he’s presenting. Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) is Daniel's over-energetic and deadly sister. Her character is a combination of clenched jaw and wide-eyed drug-fueled hyperactivity who has the heart of a sparrow. She's sort of the black sheep of the family. She tries her best and fails spectacularly; that’s why she’s turned to drugs. She’s married to Fitch Bradley and they've two children who are little brats. But she still wants to do right by her family. Charity (Elyse Levesque) is Daniel's wife. In this family game, tradition calls the shots, and Charity doesn’t fit into any one genre. Fitch (Kristian Bruun) is Emilie’s husband. He's a former frat boy, a little bit past his prime, who's very happy to be part of a very, very rich family. But he's not necessarily willing to make sacrifices. When he’s assigned an old-fashioned crossbow as his weapon, it’s, who’s supposed to be able to do anything with this? Proving that some family traditions are deadlier than others, Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni) is bloodthirsty and vengeful. She's a very bitter older woman; Aunt Helene is frustrated because she feels she could have been head honcho of the family. But when she was a young woman, she was led by her heart instead of by loyalty to her family. It’s not every movie you get to have a battle axe on set. Stevens (John Ralston) is the sinister head butler. He's an expert cleaner; in more ways than one. Stevens runs the show and is well aware of 'The Le Domas Family’s' idiosyncrasies. Once the wedding night doesn’t go as planned, he will go to any length to protect the household. Every character has a very fun death. Everyone getting bloody and there’s blood everywhere. All the deaths are devilishly put together. It’s absolutely disgusting. The kills encapsulate the tone of "Ready Or Not". They’re brutal and violent; yet at the same time you can’t help but giggle a little bit. Another iconic character is Grace's wedding dress. More than any other costume in the film, Grace’s wedding dress externalizes and expresses all that she fights through on this night of fright. The dress represents the course of the movie as a whole; we've always discuss how "Ready Or Not" starts grand and classical before it degrades and degrades. The camera moves get quicker and the music gets crazier. The dress is gorgeous at the start, but by the end? In watching the dress devolve and break down with Grace, audiences will see the garment mimic other memorable, and malleable costumes for genre movie heroines such as Carrie White’s prom dress in "Carrie; Tree Gelbman’s long-sleeved T-shirt in "Happy Death Day"; and 'The Bride' track suit and violently disrupted wedding dress in "Kill Bill". When you see Grace for the first time, you see the dress, and in it she ends up going to extremes. In the movie, there are 15-17 different looks all with the same dress in various stages of disrepair for Grace. Since Grace is, as she readily admits, a woman from humble beginnings marrying into a wealthy family, she has grown up idolizing someone like Kate Middleton, and now dresses as who she thinks the family would want to see. The dress needs to have a rich undertone and not be the classic off-white movie white. It's a warm cream color, almost yellow. The dress is a road map of what transpires with Grace. Grace sneaker shoes area sort of reference to her past life, and to show how down-to-earth and casual she's. It's also the color of optimism, which Grace must keep within her. As the night darkens and Grace is plunged into kill-or-be-killed violence, the dress itself takes on darker hues. She's got the same thing on, but it’s gotten tattered and bloody and so has the corset she wears underneath. Grounding this fantastical story of a devil-worshipping family can only be done with perfectly ominous and creepy locations. To cement an authenticity to the film,"Ready Or Not" uses practical locations and physical effects. By not relying on typical visual effects. A lot of what you’ll see in the movie is done practically, which is fun to kind of roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, literally, on this movie. The requirements of the action-packed and highly physicalized script necessitated that not one, but three locations be pressed into service to embody 'The Le Domas Estate'. Oshawa, 'Ontario’s Parkwood Estates' is one of Canada’s last remaining grand estates and was once the private residence of 'General Motors Of Canada' founder R.S. McLaughlin. The film uses 'Parkwood’s' surrounding lands for the wedding ceremony sequences, and a number of it's 55 rooms are given over for filming "Ready Or Not" interior scenes. The historic 'Casa Loma'; the only full-sized castle within range of 'North America', was built in 1911 at a cost of some $3.5 million and remains a top destination for visitors to the city. 'Casa Loma' afforded the "Ready Or Not" troupe winding and ornate interiors for deadly pursuits; and the family’s board games ethos can be seen as further manifesting in the form of 'The Clue-Style' trappings. The camera moves around and follow characters, fast!, through hallways and into rooms. So even though you don’t have the comfort and the control of being on a soundstage, there’s a lot of creativity that results. “Ready Or Not" is a little bit outside the box. This film has an unique blending of comedy, adventure, and horror, with an eye for original screenplays that are comparably distinctive. It's about the idea of taking a conventional story to the extreme. You take something that’s as familiar and relatable as marrying into a family and give it a genre bend in a playful way, but also in a dangerous and extreme way. The stakes are deadly in "Ready Or Not". It's very character-driven. The movie is terrifying but there’s also a hint of mischief in it and a hint of the absurd. It's a female-driven thriller, both contemporary and timeless. It's difficult to understand the tone of this movie and know to balance the irony and comedy with horror. Crafting a good scare is actually similar to crafting a good joke. You set it up and there's a punchline. The look and feel of the family’s classic board games, and the sinister backstory of 'The Le Domas Dynasty' is the extra touch the film needs. The film responds to the classic games feel dating back to carnivals, with a sense of history. There are secret passageways. The rumor is that there’s a ghost. It’s beyond opulent. Many body bags and many blood bags. Keeping the physical element of props and stunts raises the stakes a bit more, when you actually have the blood there. It puts you more into the world you’re playing. There's a light version make of rubber, and a much heavier version make out of metal. You can use mop oil, shaving cream, your own saliva; that’s the magic trifecta. But she cautions that when making a genre movie. Don't send things to dry cleaners. It never goes over well; they will get freaked out, no matter how well you know them. This movie is such a mix of gags, and great character stuff and that’s what makes the movie so exciting.  

(Release Info London schedule; July 6th, 2018, Curzon Cinemas) "Mary Shelley" "Mary Shelley" tells the story of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning), author of one of the world’s most famous Gothic novels ‘Frankenstein’, and her fiery, tempestuous relationship with renowned romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth.) The pair are two outsiders constrained by polite society but bound together by a natural chemistry and progressive ideas that are beyond the boundaries of their age and time. Mary and Percy declare their love for each other and much to her family's horror they run away together, joined by Mary's half-sister Claire (Bel Powley.) In the midst of growing tension within their relationship during their stay at Lord Byron's (Tom Sturridge) house at Lake Geneva, the idea of 'Frankenstein' is conceived when a challenge is put to all houseguests to write a ghost story. An incredible character is created, which will loom large in popular culture for centuries to come, but society at the time puts little value in female authors. At the tender age of 18, Mary is forced to challenge these preconceptions, to protect her work and to forge her own identity. This film is about the arc of Mary’s journey transitioning from a young girl into an adult and a creator in her own right, saying; it’s a story of a girl growing up and finding her voice and stepping out of the shadows of her family. She's a free spirit, powerful and very attentive, she picks up on all things, she's curious and very observant. It goes from Mary being essentially a teenager to stepping into womanhood and standing for something that she has created, bucking the conventional norms of her society. Mary is not perfect, and makes questionable choices and mistakes throughout her journey. But she does not give in to disappointment or the agony of loss, she just pushes forward. She's an example of someone who takes the weight of misery and transforms it into a personal and profound work of art. It would have been very easy for her to give up at any point along the way, or to defer to her accomplished parents or brilliant husband, but she decided ultimately to find her own voice.     Percy Shelley is a complex character, a strange blend of charismatic genius, romantic poet, scandalous rebel and wildly irresponsible maverick. Percy Shelley is an anarchist; he wants to be a revolutionary. He’s much more than just this lover, this romantic poet, he's a flawed character. He has so many traits that are wonderful but there are so many that are just devastating for the people around him. He's constantly pursued by his demons and his desire to live a life that's so unconventional in those days. Percy is a man who walks into a room and women swooned. There's a scene between Mary and Percy when first she confronts him about his potential infidelity, it’s the moment in the story where Mary grows up. Lord Byron is broke and brave, unpredictable and passionate. He's an astonishing historical figure. These women, Claire and Mary, are incredibly forward thinking for their age and their time. They're like hippies in the sixties, they're ahead of their time. Relationships are the foundation of "Mary Shelley", providing a framework within which Mary craves out her own identity, pushing back against the expectations of society, the legacy of her parents and the overshadowing prowess of her partner. The various relationships that exist throughout this film, between Mary and her father William Godwin (Stephen Dillane), Mary and her sister Claire, the relationship between Mary and Percy, Claire and Lord Byron, Lord Byron and Percy, Lord Byron and John Polidori (Ben Hardy), Polidori and Mary and finally the interconnecting relationships between all the main characters Mary, Claire, Percy and Byron, underpin this film. Claire’s relationship with Mary is complicated. Perhaps Claire wants to be Mary. She's not jealous of her but she tried to emulate her. If Mary gets Shelley, then Claire will get Byron! But they love each other unconditionally even though they're half-sisters. She's in awe of Mary but she loves and adores her. They're ying and yang. In life and the reality of them is that one is a bit more elegant and erudite and educated and the other is more wild and frivolous but together they created a specific energy. Claire is not as formidable as Mary but without a doubt there's real love between these two half-sisters, they protect one another. The only parental figure in Mary’s life is her father, so when he dismisses all her writing it’s like a dagger to her heart. A man who's so respected in his field not believing in his daughter is so hard for her to take. All she wants is recognition from him. Percy is the one for her. With him she feels that they can take on the world and all that it throws at them, and they will be okay because they've each other. There are times she certainly questions her beliefs. But ultimately, she knows their love, this mad, huge crazy love story, is strong enough to withstand what's thrown at them. Being with Mary is for Percy a challenge, he challenges her to live this life with him. She's incredibly smart, had this fresh sexuality, she has a cheekiness to her and so he fell in love with this vision. Percy looks up to Byron; he's in awe of him. Byron is a star and at the time Percy really respected him and the way he's and what he stands for. Their relationship, if indeed you can call it that, is relatively complicated and quite unbalanced. Claire’s perceptions of it are potentially very different to Byron’s. Claire is a very determined woman, she doesn’t take no for an answer, she knows what she wants and it's Byron and even though it ends badly for her she believes in herself. Claire is not the bimbo of the trio; she's not a dumb little sister, she's very smart and she's fighting to make her mark in this trio. Their's an unconventional relationship, they live as a unit and there's clearly a close-ness between all three of them. Polidori’s relationship with Mary is kind of the antithesis of her relationship with Percy. He's the bad guy.     "Mary Shelley" is an English period film about the story of a young girl growing up who's trying to find her voice, surrounded by superstition that she wants to break free of. Mary was only 18 when she created and wrote 'Frankenstein'. The story essentially subverts everything that we think we know about the early 1800’s in England. We're blown away by the strength and fight that this extremely young woman found within her, and that the life of "Mary Shelley" is a powerful story that feels very relevant right now. Although set in the 1800’s, her journey is so modern and relevant to today’s world. Mary has a story to tell but society is not letting her tell it. Mary is the center of the piece and she's such a strong feminine force within a community. heavily dominated by men. It's split into two facets, Mary and 'The Monster'. Within Mary there's the love story with Percy, her strengths, her disappointments her huge loss and her inspiration. 'The Monster' theme is more about the ghost stories Mary herself is obsessed with, the otherworldliness and ultimately the darkness that 'The Monster' in-habits within her. She grows up in this very conservative culture, where women’s roles were much more rigid and opportunities were extremely limited. But she rose above it, and wrote a story that continues to capture the imagination of readers to this day. She chose to write a book that's so outside of the acceptable realms of literature for women, and created a genre that continues to be dominated by male voices. She writes a book that challenged religious doctrine and raised new ethical questions about the impact of uninhibited scientific experimentation would have on a society. Although they're set in two different times and worlds, Mary’s story does have some very interesting parallels to "Wadjda’s". Both young women were struggling against conservative social structures in order to pursue the lives they wanted to live. They're both women who unapologetically follow their hearts, against the norms and expectations of their societies, without compromise to achieve a personal triumph. What's interesting about this film is that you’re dealing with people who very much rebelled against and revolted against the kind of conformity of the period; these guys were free. Although the film is a period drama set in the 1800’s "Mary Shelley" has a very modern message. It’s about the emancipation of a young girl’s soul and that whatever period you're in you can recognize that desire for freedom. It’s a coming of age story about a girl who through her own life experience is able to express through her writing how the various conflicts and de-mons that she has to deal with comes to the fore. A young woman trying to find and own her voice, and that’s massively universal whether it takes place 200 years ago or two weeks ago. And you know 'Frankenstein' is also the precursor to all of science fiction and was written by a woman. The film is in a period of time of a couple of hundred years ago but you can relate to it now. They're pushing boundaries, take away the costumes and there's something in the film that every 18 or 19- year-old will relate to. Her life story is an important aspect of 'The Frankenstein' legacy, and it's a beloved work to so many people for so many different reasons. The film focuses on aspects of her personal journey that may not be that well known but are key to truly understanding everything that went into her writing. The journey of Frankenstein’s monster reflects many of the tragic events of her own life.     "Mary Shelley" is the remarkable true story of a woman who railed against the constraints of her society to create a story that would outlive the work of her contemporaries, including her brilliant parents and husband, to influence generations of writers and dreamers with an entirely new genre; science fiction. Her own story feels so strangely familiar because so much of it ended up allegorically in 'Frankenstein'. We all know the basic story, but her journey reveals so many layers and deeper philosophical elements that help explain the work’s appeal. A modern-day example is J.K. Rowling. Many of the problem’s that Mary Shelley faced continue to challenge women today. Philosophically the way in which Mary went after what she wanted in her life, without regard to moral or societal limitations, was extremely shocking to the public in her time. Whereas the same behavior would perhaps be more acceptable for a man, public pressure to be chaste and morally pure is still something that women struggle with today. Sadly, even her struggles to publish her book under her own name show a societal reluctance to embrace works of science, horror, or other traditionally ‘masculine’ themes from a female writer that continue to this day. Look at a book like 'The Outsiders'. Sarah Hinton had to abbreviate her name to S.E. Hinton so readers wouldn't know her gender just by looking at the cover. Whenever women write something out-side of the realm of acceptable topics for the gender-romance, cook books, children’s books, we see that there's still a long way to go in unrestricting the potential of the female voice in our society.    

Any Marvel movie that has to follow Infinity War is unfairly going to be compared to the grandeur of that film and while Ant-Man and the Wasp was never meant to be as grand in scale or serious as that film, it just about manages to succeed in being a light-hearted, low stakes affair much like the 2015 original. Not everything here works though and I’d say that it’s the weakest MCU film this year and probably in Phase 3 so far. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just a little lacking to me. For those confused about the film’s place in the timeline, it takes place before Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and syncs up with those events come the end. The story revolves around two major plot lines, the first being that of Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank’s (Michael Douglas) mission to rescue her mother/his wife from the Quantum Realm, while the second involves the threat posed by The Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) to them and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). While I found neither of these plot lines all that investing, it’s the chemistry between the three main leads that holds everything together. Rudd, Lilly and Douglas continue to shine as these characters. Giving Lilly the chance to suit up and become The Wasp for this film was an exciting prospect and she does great in all her action scenes, but there are times where Hope should clearly have been given more input in a scene, but sometimes Scott and Hank will steal the moment from her. Despite this, I felt the character really came more into her own here. Scott Lang continues to be the earnest and underdog hero of the MCU. For me the moments that he has with his daughter are the moments where he’s the real hero and Rudd really sells these scenes. The supporting cast of Michael Peña, Tip Harris and David Dastmalchian are usually the comedic highlights of the film, just as they were in the original, although I was disappointed we didn’t get more of Luis’ (Peña) signature stories. The weakest characters of the film though really fall of the villain side of things. John-Kamen as Ava/The Ghost doesn’t get much to do in the role and the actress doesn’t give a particularly memorable performance either. Her motivations are clear, but understandable meaning she isn’t really much of a villain in the end. This means the only straight-up villain of the film is Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), a black market dealer and he’s too one dimensional and not very threatening either. Overall, the villains of the picture were easily the weakest of Phase 3 which is a shame because Phase 3 has had some pretty strong villains. What’s unique about Ant-Man’s world is the shrinking and growing perspective that adds an often comical and surreal experience to many scenes. The action scenes in particular inventively use the shrinking/growing aspects to create some fun set-pieces. The climax is where a lot of this used; unfortunately a lot of it is shown in the trailer. Actually a lot of this movie was shown in the trailer, including the post-credit scene. However, the technical filmmaking is an all-around improvement over the original with the direction feeling more confident and the actors more settled into their characters. It’s just the story seems to go in circles sometimes throwing off the pace. Director Peyton Reed delivered on everything audiences came to like about the original Ant-Man, but this sequel fails to always be interesting or exciting. It’s many moments of comedy don’t always work and the villains are too bland to feel menacing. It’s certainly a fun distraction while we wait for the next Avengers, but it won’t go down as one of the MCU’s best.

(Release Info London schedule; June 14th, 2919, Cineworld Greenwich, The O2, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX, United Kingdom, 21:10pm) "The Hummingbird Project" From director Kim Nguyen comes a modern-day 'David & Goliath' story that is equal parts financial thriller and human drama, excavating the pitfalls and perils of two men who risk everything in order to have it all. Cousins from New York, Vincent Zaleski (Jesse Eisenberg) and Anton Zaleski (Alexander Skarsgård) are players in the high-stakes game of 'High Frequency Trading', where winning is measured in milliseconds. Their dream? To build a fiber-optic cable straight line between Kansas and New Jersey, making them millions. But nothing is straightforward for this flawed pair. Anton is the brains, Vincent is the hustler, and together they push each other and everyone around them to breaking point on their quixotic adventure. Constantly breathing down their necks is their old boss Eva Torres (Salma Hayek) a powerful, intoxicating and manipulative trader who will stop at nothing to come between them and beat them at their own game. No matter what the cost, Vincent and Anton are determined to cut through America, only to find redemption at the end of their line, not through money, but through family and reconnecting to the land. Cousins from New York, Vincent and Anton are players in the high-stakes game of high frequency trading, where winning is measured in milliseconds. Vincent is the hustler and Anton is the brains; together they push each other and everyone around them in their quixotic quest to attain 'The Ultimate American Dream'. Embarking on 'The Herculean' task of installing a fiber-optic cable in a straight line between Kansas and New Jersey, so they can yield faster trades and greater riches, the cousins clash with their rapacious former boss, Eva Torres, a hedge-fund manager who tries to beat them at their own game using a rival technology. Racing against time, navigating heavy machinery, stubborn landowners, and the elements, Vincent and Anton move mountains to cut through America and get rich faster, only to find redemption and renewal at the end of the line. The film exposes the ruthless edge of our increasingly digital world.   "The Hummingbird Project" speaks to the ridiculousness of our monetary pursuits; and the humanity behind getting rich quick. The film takes this massive, real-world concept of high frequency trading and placed two unique and unusual people in the middle of it. The story centers on high-frequency trader cousins Vincent and Anton, second-generation 'Eastern European New Yorkers' who leave their 'Wall Street' trading-floor jobs to construct a fiber-optic line stretching from 'The Midwest' to 'The East Coast', guaranteeing faster trades. The film's title suggests an inconceivable task, laying a cable in the earth that can transfer data from Kansas to New York in the time it takes a hummingbird to flap it's wings. Much of "​The Hummingbird Project​'s" story plays out on the open road, with Vincent and his hired crew of diggers and drillers troubleshooting the line as it stretches across the American heartland. With Vincent in the field wheeling and dealing over land rights, boring through granite mountains to keep the project heading in a straight line, his cousin Anton barricades himself in hotel rooms around the country, writing algorithmic code to outpace Eva Torres microwave-tower technology. It's also an immigrant's tale set in the digital age, telling the story of second-generation cousins of 'Eastern European' descent who are trying to attain 'The American Dream' after successful careers on 'Wall Street'. After burning it all down on the trading floor, Vincent and Anton strive for an event greater net worth. Vincent and Anton Zaleski have risen through the ranks of the financial sector as trader and quant, respectively. At the story's outset, they find themselves frustrated not only with their jobs but also their positions in life. Fast-talking and entrepreneurial, Vincent wants to get rich quick and take down his competition, including his former boss Eva Torres, who will stop at nothing in her own right to implement and patent the technology for faster trades. Vincent is a salesman who wins arguments by talking around his opponent, if he pauses to think, he could be vulnerable to counter-argument. He spends most of the movie living in the delusion that his project will be flawless, as he tries to convince people to invest in his vision. He literally can't afford to take a breath. Anton, in contrast, is an introverted quant more comfortable crunching numbers at a computer terminal, quietly longing for a simple country life far from the madness of the financial sector. In an early scene, after finding an investor to fund their fiber-optic scheme, Vincent and Anton quit their jobs in Eva's firm and brazenly embark on the adventure of a lifetime; trying to beat the very system that shaped them. Vincent rents drilling machinery and negotiates land rights while Anton perfects the algorithm that will hopefully yield them untold riches. Vincent is the salesman of the operation who's more ambitious than he's thoughtful. He doesn't just want to succeed in the financial system, he wants to beat it by going around the establishment. He's interested in winning regardless of the consequences to him or the world around him, and while he's a smart guy, he doesn't always think before he speaks. Without his cousin Anton, he would probably be selling fake 'Gucci' handbags on the streets of New York City. Skittish and reserved in the face of Vincent's brash, live-wire determination, Anton is a balding husband and father who happens to be a math genius, capable of seeing order in the chaotic flow of numbers and data that course across his computer terminal in a given second. He's socially awkward and probably on 'The Spectrum'. His goal in life is to be around the people he can tolerate, and there's not that many, basically his wife and kids, and Vincent, who's his best friend and cousin, as well as Anton's connection to the outside world. He can shelter Anton in a way that allows him to focus strictly on writing code and coming up with new algorithms. At it's heart a 'David & Goliath' story, Vincent and Anton are the underdogs who come up against a much stronger adversary in the form of their one-time employer Eva Torres. Symbolizing rapacious capitalism at it's most extreme, the flashy, foul-mouthed Eva will stop at nothing to gain the competitive edge over her former underlings. 'The Hummingbird Project' reaches it's apotheosis when Vincent, suffering from a serious illness, finds himself negotiating drilling rights with an obstinate Amish farmer who won't yield his land, giving Eva the advantage in their race for speedier trades. By pushing himself to the extreme, and finding himself pitted against a 'Luddite', Vincent discovers that his relentless pursuit of financial gain is an untenable and even unhealthy pursuit. Vincent begins the story with what he believes is his purpose in life but his journey of discovery switches course at a certain point and becomes more about realigning his priorities. The stakes of the journey are resolved but they're completely different than when his journey started. At ​'The Hummingbird Projec​t's' conclusion, Vincent and Anton discover that the object of their pursuit, whether money in specific or 'The American Dream' in general, isn't exactly what they thought it was when they set out on their epic journey. As Vincent and Anton come to learn, sometimes we're blown off course from what we're truly meant to achieve in life. The cousins also realize they're inconspicuous in the face of rapid-fire change, this week's hot technology will be irrelevant before the next big thing comes along, whether neutrino messaging, microwave drones, or something as yet undiscovered. But does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? By 2010.financial companies were spending $2.2 billion on trading infrastructure, the high-speed servers that process trades and the fiber-optic cables that link them in a globe spanning network. One company specializing in trading infrastructure is 'Spread Networks', founded in 2010 with the mission of providing Internet connectivity between Chicago and New York City at close to the speed of light, using so-called dark fiber, or optical fibers, to make faster trades. The first fiber-optic line planted by 'Spread Networks' ran 827 miles, from 'The Chicago Mercantile Exchange', where futures and options are traded, to 'The Nasdaq Data Center' in Carteret, New Jersey, costing $300 million to construct. By October 2012, 'Spread' announced improvements to their line, decreasing the round-trip time from 13.1 milliseconds to 12.98 milliseconds, giving Spread traders a slight advantage over the average round-trip of 14.5 milliseconds. Because glass has a higher refractive index than air, the round-trip time for fiber-optic transmission is 50 percent faster than microwave towers, the technology used by 'The Hummingbird Project​'s' Eva Torres in her battle to outwit and out-earn 'The Zaleskis'. The result became 'IEX', or 'Investors Exchange', a transparent stock exchange that has gone on to trade 229.2 million shares at a collective value of nearly $11 billion. It's a story about the ​people behind trading algorithms and fiber-optic lines, the speed demons who take an unethical approach to high frequency trading, discovering in their pursuit of vast wealth that their lives are not made richer in the process. A cautionary tale for our cutting-edge times, the project positions two scheming underdogs up against the behemoth of global capitalism, symbolized by the ruthless and merciless hedge fund manager Eva Torres. She's the most unique person in the business. She wants to get to places before anyone else and break new ground in technology so she can stay ahead of the game. It's not just about the money for her, this is a movie about obsessions, and Eva's obsession is devouring and co-opting genius. Playing out like a high-stakes thriller that substitutes the trading floor for 'The American Terrain', ​'The Hummingbird Project' becomes a glorified arms race across the country, over hills, rivers, highways, and private farmland, to implement the new technology before Eva can erect her own. She's a woman who's very content in her life, not some robot. You can see the passion in what she does. When things get dangerous, there are tantrums. But she's also heavily focused on strategy, she doesn't take a lot of time to indulge in drama. Eva wants to be intimidating toward people but she dresses simply, in a way that's not distracting. So many women her age are afraid of getting old, but Eva embraces it and even owns it, making a statement of her power through her hair. She's smart, she's fearless, she's a woman, and she's Latina, so she has to be tougher than everyone else. The film includes a voice of sanity and reason in the form of chief engineer Mark Vega (Michael Mando), the project manager of Vincent's vision, who maneuvers and operates the heavy equipment in the field. If Vincent is the mouth of the operation and Anton is the brains, Mark is the heart of the project in that he has to make sure as chief engineer that everything is steady and stable; including Vincent. They're digging this elaborate straight line across the country and someone has to stay level-headed, that responsibility falls on Mark. He joins Vincent's team because he sees this as an opportunity to create something bigger than himself. A kind of bromance develops along the way between Mark and Vincent; at the end of the movie Mark discovers his true purpose, more than finishing the fiber-optic line, is to save Vincent's life. A good portion of ​'The Hummingbird Project' involves heavy machinery, in particular the directional-drilling equipment Vincent must track down and place in the hands of Mark Vega in order to facilitate his dream of laying a 1,000-mile cable between Kansas and New Jersey. Mark Vega has a profound bond with Vincent Zaleski; even when the wheeling and dealing character is at his lowest ebb, Vega sees a human being, working tirelessly to get the job done while at the same time helping to keep his cousin going. Mark is drawn to the humanity in Vincent, he understands his desire to want to leave his mark on the earth, but there's also an underdog quality that Mark relates to, and wants to see through. This film is based on the 2012 ​'Wired' article 'Raging Bulls: How Wall Street Got Addicted To Light-Speed Trading'. One such consultants help make the project more comprehensible to a general audience, including a high-frequency trading expert accustomed to dealing with billion-dollar money flows on a daily basis in his former career as a 'Wall Street' options trader, is ​Haim Bodek, a former 'Goldman Sachs' trader. After working at 'Goldman Sachs' in the late '90s, where he was a successful options trader, and 'UBS', where he was the global head of volatility trading, Bodek formed his own high frequency company called 'Trading Machines', which at the height of it's success in the early 2000s accounted for half a percentage of all 'U.S.' options trading, a huge number for such a small firm. When 'Trading Machines' began losing money, Bodek set about reverse-engineering his own algorithms in an effort to find out why he was hemorrhaging cash. What he discovered alarmed him: traders were rigging the game by manipulating the order in which trades were placed electronically, an especially shrewd trader could effectively jump the line and profit in the millions without anyone knowing. Bodek tipped off 'The Securities And Exchange Commission' on the practice, outfoxing his corrupt rivals by exposing what became known as the largest heist in 'Wall Street History'. Nicknamed 'The Edward Snowden Of Finance' by 'The Russians', Bodek was quickly blackballed by the industry for blowing the whistle on high frequency trading. Bodek is instrumental in helping shape the characters of Vincent and Anton Zaleski, having known and worked with traders and quants for much of his 'Wall Street' career. Vincent and Anton are two individuals who think they can beat the system. What's so interesting about this movie is through it's characters you realize this way of living is not designed for human beings, who are plugged into lunar and sun cycles. Those cycles are slow; 29 days, 24 hours. Like Vincent Zaleski discovers, our obsession with milliseconds is bound to make people sick. Sometimes it's better to slow down; you'll get more mileage out of life when you do. While ambitious in scope and a powerful commentary on the absurdity of our financial institutions, at it's core ​"The Hummingbird Project" is character-driven. This is the rare story about something timely and important in which the characters propel the plot. 'Wall Street' is a zero-sum game. There are winners and losers, and if you're a loser, you've no one to blame but yourself, you simply aren't good enough. Someone else is smarter, faster. At once a high-stakes financial thriller with a gripping cautionary tale on the perils of rapacious greed, and thoughtful human drama about reclaiming life's essentials, "The Hummingbird Project" is a story for our up-to-the-minute times; where a millisecond can determine fortune or failure, and the next big technological advancement could wipe out today's way of doing things almost instantly. This film is about the amazing premise of people digging thousand-mile long tunnels to try and shave a couple of milliseconds off of the time it took to make their stock market trades. We've this haunting image in our head of stock market hustlers struggling to walk through swamps and muddy forests in their expensive suits, putting their sanity on the line all for the good old dollar. It's about quantum physics experts, fiber optic physicists, highly specialized tunnel digging experts who dig hundred-mile-long, four-inch-wide tunnels for a living. High frequency trading experts dealing with billion dollar  money flows on a daily basis. Boy, what a ride. In retrospect, there's something about bringing forward what seems to be a metaphoric world, when in fact most of what's in the script is, in some way, true to life. "The Hummingbird Project" builds on a growing body of work that's global in scope and scale yet intimate in its examination of ordinary people living in extraordinary times, often at the mercy of nature, who connect and conspire amid hurdles ranging from technology, time and distance to warfare and climate. The film is fascinated by the idea of finance professionals digging thousand-mile-long tunnels to try and eliminate milliseconds from their stock-market trades. This is a relatable and very human struggle; one that's rooted as much in the natural world as the digital realm. It's about speed-obsessed quants, the physicists, engineers and mathematicians-turned-financiers who generate more than half of all 'U.S.' stock trading. In the pursuit of market-beating returns, sending a signal at faster than light speed provides the ultimate edge; a way to make trades in the past, the financial equivalent of betting on a horse after it has been run. One of the underlying themes of the film is the elasticity of time, similar to the way Einstein explains 'Relativity'. There's something about our experience of time that's so different depending on our emotional status. Things are becoming so fast-paced that we're losing our sense of reality, and we feel it.

(Release Info London/U.K. schedule; October 19th, 2018, Empire Cinemas) "Hunter Killer" Deep under 'The Arctic Ocean', American submarine Captain Joe Glass (Gerard Butler) is on the hunt for a U.S. sub in distress when he discovers a secret Russian coup is in the offing, threatening to dismantle the world order. With crew and country on the line, Captain Glass must now assemble an elite group of 'Navy SEALS' to rescue the kidnapped Russian president Zakarin (Alexander Diachenko) and sneak through enemy waters to stop 'WWIII'. This is the relentlessly tense situation audiences are plunged into in "Hunter Killer", aptly named for the sleek attack subs created to boldly approach the enemy without detection. It all begins as a Russian sub sinks in 'The Arctic Ocean'. Soon after, 'The U.S.' sub ghosting it also mysteriously vanishes. In the midst of investigating these unsettling events, military brass in 'Washington D.C.' are sent scrambling when they discover a rogue Russian admiral is attempting to carry out a bloodthirsty coup at a naval base in Russia. The only hope to halt a war of the superpowers lies in the efforts of two secret crews. First, a clandestine 'Black Ops' team of 'Ex-SEALs' must try to sneak into Russian territory to intercept the kidnapping of 'The Russian President'. Simultaneously, in the sea, Captain Joe Glass and the young crew of 'The USS Arkansas' are under orders to head towards the enemy. As a hunter-killer captain, Glass has mastered the rules of the cat-and-mouse game but will now have to courageously break them, as he realizes that this time the cat and the mouse may have to join forces. As the steely Captain Glass comes face-to-face with his stoic Russian counterpart, Captain Andropov (Michael Nyqvist), it becomes clear that the wary, distrustful bond between them may be all that stands between the world and nuclear catastrophe. Captain Joe Glass reveals a very different side to heroism as the fiercely intelligent and quietly bold Captain of 'The USS Arkansas' He’s an action guy who makes it all happen, but he does it from a position of authority rather than being the guy out there pulling the trigger. Glass knows that trust is the only sinew that can hold together a young and anxious submarine crew with so little contact with the outside world. But he has to forge that trust on his boat one savvy move at a time. At first nobody quite trusts Glass because he seems a little nuts. But you see him carefully build his bond with the crew as they begin to realize how serious their mission is. They start out as young men and women who are mostly playing at their roles and then you get to watch as they become incredibly honed warriors daring to attempt the impossible. The trust issues get far more complicated when 'The USS Arkansas' takes aboard a group of rescued Russians who, though ostensibly the enemy, may actually be the key to everyone’s survival. Glass is more about daring strategy than physical derring-do, which further boosted the development. What’s fascinating about Glass to is that he has to make decisions that will affect the world for hundreds of years because we’re talking about the immediate possibility of sparking an all-out 'World War III'. So he’s up against the highest stakes imaginable, and the way things unfold for him is both really suspenseful and surprisingly believable in today’s geopolitical circumstances. When 'The USS Arkansas' rescues the surviving Russian crew aboard a crippled sub, Captain Glass comes face-to-face with his alter-ego, a man who under other circumstances might be his most feared enemy, but who reflects a mirror image of himself. This is Captain Andropov, and both men will come to take enormous risks as they wrestle with how much to trust the other. He's a patriot in an 'Old School' way. What happens to him is a betrayal by his own country and he finds it unbelievable and that's very relatable. They’re enemies. But as individuals, they each have the ability to do things differently than anybody else would; they both can see above and beyond the normal rules of conflict and engagement. Andropov is an old salty dog of a warrior while Glass is a hard-nosed, blue-collar Navy man. Glass and Andropov trust each other as sailors and at the end of the day, these two captains find they're in the same situation. They have to help each other and that becomes a key theme of the story; trust. Yet they both have respect for the other and their almost silent relationship drives the outcome of the story. While Captain Glass wrestles with the right moves in the deep blue, the military brass in 'Washington D.C.' race to figure out the best response to the imminent global crisis for 'The United States'. The man leading the charge towards military action in 'The War Room is the resolute Admiral Charles Donnegan (Gary Oldman). He thinks that, sort of like a magician’s sleight of hand, that while 'The U.S.' is preoccupied with preventing a nuclear war, he’ll pull off his coup without resistance. But Donnegan feels his job is to respond to any threat with strength and intent. Opposing Donnegan in 'The War Room' with a more cautious 'POV' is Rear Admiral John Fisk (Common). He has to make decisions that are complex and have huge consequences in the world. He knows that the information he provides to his Commander-in-Chief can start or stop a war and he has to take every moment of his job very, very seriously. Donnegan is quick to believe that 'World War III' is already in motion. He has a certain way of thinking about conflict that Fisk sees as rooted in the past. Fisk is from a generation that's more open-minded and about seeking peace. So they represent opposite strategies at 'The Pentagon'. This film is based on the novel 'Firing Point', written by George Wallace, the highly experienced, retired commander of the nuclear attack submarine 'The USS Houston', along with author Don Keith. The book’s action-packed plot, based on Wallace’s extensive knowledge, twisted and turned through a Russian nationalist coup, a 'Black Ops Navy SEAL' mission and an attack submarine captain faced with decisions that could halt, or instantly ignite, 'WWIII'. Complex as it's, the story is so teeth-grittingly plausible it keeps readers up late at night. Even more than the thrills, readers are transported into life on a nuclear sub, immersed into the cramped, sun-deprived, nerve-shredding ambience where steadiness and honor are the only bedrock to be found. Indeed, the submarine movie has been a popular genre since the earliest days of commercial motion pictures. From the silent 'Secret Of The Submarine' in 1915 to a flood of nerve-wracking 'WWII' sub movies to the groundbreakingly visceral German film "Das Boot" to the adaptations of Tom Clancy’s "The Hunt For Red October" and "Crimson Tide" in the 1990s, the tightly-contained space inside a sub full of soldiers facing extremes of confinement, anxiety and danger has been rife with the stuff of drama. But in the wake of vast changes in submarine technology, and in the world, in the new millennium, no film had yet submersed itself into life on a '21st Century' naval submarine. 'Hunter Killer' is a naval vessel, especially a submarine, equipped to locate and destroy enemy vessels, especially other submarines. Deep beneath 'The Icy Surface' of 'fhe Arctic Circle', 'Fhe Cold War' never really ended. Here, at extreme depths invisible to the world, U.S. and Russian submarines continue to play ultra-high-stakes rounds of hide-and- seek through harrowingly narrow passages, as a constant reminder to one another of the unthinkable costs of sudden aggression. Peril has only mounted amid heightened tensions as a new generation of highly sophisticated nuclear attack subs prowl the murky depths, persistently trailing and shadowing one another as if a full-blown battle is about to break out. But what if these charged war games suddenly stopped being a game at all? What if, as chaos erupts on land, there's only one shot to pull the world back from the brink of 'WWIII' and unthinkable nuclear conflicty? The film takes the classic submarine thriller, with all it's nail-biting tension, claustrophobia, physical and psychological pressure, into 'The Post-Cold War Era' when flash coups and counter-reactions can alter the balance of world power overnight. “Hunter Killer is about a fictional event, but it could easily occur in today’s world. There have been many recent news articles about how Russian and American submarines are chasing each other under water in dangerous ways. Yet, because it’s happening under the ocean, the public never knows what's going on. Two submarines ghosting each other through the ocean; resulting in an incident that quickly escalates to the brink of war. These are people who drill and drill and drill so that when things hit the fan, they can make the right moves, like it’s in their sleep. Everything has to be automatic because when you've got freezing cold water coming in, the carbon dioxide is building, there's a fire going on, the place is full of smoke and you know your sub is to go down, you need to be able to act in half a second. Learning about that was very, very enlightening. You see that it takes certain kind of individual to be able to lead in this very hazardous narrow tube. The film’s action moves from deep sea to land and back again. But most of all, "Hunter Killer", captures 'The 21st Century' world of the so-called 'Silent Service', the men and women who serve by patrolling the deep, while their boldest exploits often go unheard and unseen. It’s a classic story with a heck of a lot of great action, a heck of an intricate plot and a whole cast of fantastic characters who are heroes from different walks of life. It feels like an exciting way to revive the submarine thriller for these times. The film takes the audience into the world of submarine culture in a way that's contemporary to our times. You've all the claustrophobia and contained anxiety of being on the sub and then you've the 'Black Ops' team operating amid gunfire in these big, wide-open spaces. That combination keeps things really interesting. "Hunter Killer" is chance for audiences to experience a lot of military action but you also will get a chance to see another core part of Navy life; honor, courage and commitment being demonstrated against all odds. We live in a time now in which a lot of people are afraid, but maybe we can trust more and we can talk to each other more. If you don’t believe in your prejudice and your fears, we might have a better world.

A re-watch was a very long time coming. I barely remember being that annoying kid at Age 3 constantly bothering my parents to put that VCR in the player. The video cassette got lost sometime in the 90s. A year ago, I 'discovered'' it once again. It was as good as I remembered. As a 26 year old, I appreciated the darker, more adult content I did not understand. 'Sorry, wrong pocket' as Carey accidentally whips out a used condom. The Mask was a light hearted, cartoonish view of what can happen when nobody, Ipkiss, gets his hands on a mask that transforms him into a man he always wished he was... confident, suave and popular. If only we could all find something similar! 1994 was definitely the year for Carey with Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber. Breakout star indeed. He plays Stanley Ipkiss and his 'alter ego' so well in The Mask. Fantastic film which will always remind me of my youth.

(Release Info London schedule; January 15th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-stardust-film-online "Stardust" Meet David before Bowie. One of the greatest icons in music history. But who was the young man behind the many faces? In 1971, a 24-year-old David Bowie (Johnny Flynn) embarks on his first road trip to America with 'Mercury Records' publicist Ron Oberman (Marc Maron), only to be met with a world not yet ready for him. "Stardust" offers a glimpse behind the curtain of the moments that inspired the creation of Bowie’s first and most memorable alter ego, 'Ziggy Stardust', capturing the turning point that cemented his career as one of the world’s greatest cultural icons. At the time the film is set in 1971, David Bowie is performing a lot of covers, including work by 'The Velvet Underground', 'Jacques Brel', 'Cream', 'The Who' and 'The Yardbirds'. In the film he performs work by 'Brel' and 'The Yardbirds', as well as 'Good Ol Jane'. The script centers on a particular moment in David’s life, as a young artist starting out before he’s really famous, before 'The Ziggy Stardust' years. That's always a really interesting time in Bowie’s life because he's trying really hard and kind of failing a lot. Looking at that point in somebody’s life who goes on to become such an iconic voice and personality in our times. As an artist who influences so many people, where's he before that moment when he brakes through? It’s really clever the way the story focuses on a few months in his life, on his trip to America, which is so important to him. It’s where you see him gather the references and influences that go into 'Ziggy Stardust' that's basically his breakthrough moment as an artist. The David Bowie who arrives in America for the first time in January 1971 is not a star. He's an ambitious but insecure young man, with just one hit under his belt that most of the music business had dismissed as a novelty record. And he also has a deep fear that he would soon suffer the same fate as the man who practically raised him; his half-brother, Terry Burns (Derek Moran). Born ten years before David, Terry gives his younger brother a musical education, takes him to his first ever gig, buy him his first record. David’s maternal aunts and grandmother had all suffered bouts of mental illness and in 1967, when David was just 20, Terry had a complete mental breakdown and was sent to an asylum. David’s fear that he too could be struck down by schizophrenia is very present on 'The Man Who Sold the World'. Singing about his fractured inner life probably helps him to stay in one piece. But it didn’t bring him the fame and recognition he craved. Very little has been written about that first trip he made to America. In some respects, it's a disaster, without a visa or musician’s union paperwork, he couldn’t even perform the songs he's there to promote. But instead he finds some of the ideas and influences that he would meld together to create his alter ego, 'Ziggy Stardust'. Ziggy is the culmination of David’s struggle to experience madness in a safe way. It's a means to develop multiple personalities without becoming a case of multiple personality disorder. It converts the potential delusion that he's to be a world famous rock star into a reality. But above all, it's born out of his family dynamic. The film is very much grounded in fact; but it’s also a work of speculative fiction. The film has a slightly heightened, playful tone, but it's true to the spirit of where David is at around that point in his life. Finding a musician who could connect with that experience of an artist starting out, figuring out his identity as a performer, is far more important than physical resemblance. To be a young guy in America, before the Internet and before that sort of constant commercial integration between 'European' culture and 'American' culture, it's such a separate universe. America is huge. The steam coming up from the subway and the yellow taxis. It’s just so intense. The first time you travel so far from home is so exciting and inspiring and that’s what we’re telling in this story. For David to go to America at this time, in 1971, when it’s even more American, not cross-pollinated with any other culture, is just so staunchly American. This is the era of 'The Vietnam War' and it’s an interesting time when Americans have just been through social change at the end of the '60s'. It’s probably quite a divided country where there’s a lot of what still looks like the '50s'. David goes there and he sees diner culture and all that, and he walks up wearing a dress. He goes to 'The Factory' and meet Andy Warhol; all these massive American cultural references kind of just seeps into him. He mixes 'French' chanson with 'American' garage rock. He really put on a character and slowly reinvents himself over the years. He's a sponge for different musical styles. There are pictures of him at these parties playing little sets in a dress and long hair, which the film replicates. It becomes something completely new and exciting through his own interpretation. How can you play Bowie in a sensitive way that doesn’t betray his legacy and him as an artist?” David Bowie had many different faces and almost looked completely different at various stages throughout his life. There probably are great David Bowie impersonators but that’s not what it’s about. Regardless of whether it’s David Bowie or not, it has to be a truthful character. It's a pretty real set of circumstances that we know he went through, so it feels good. It flows really beautifully and the relationships that are portrayed provide a kind of dynamism and intention. It's a film about what makes someone become an artist; what actually drives them to make their art. That someone is David Bowie, a man we’re used to thinking about as the star he became, or as one of his alter egos; 'Ziggy Stardust'; 'Aladdin Zane'; 'The Thin White Duke'. Someone we only ever saw at a great distance, behind a mask; a godlike, alien presence. Even in his perfectly choreographed death, he didn’t seem like a regular human being. Rather than make a biopic, or a spin through his greatest hits, the idea is a film about what we’ve not seen; the interior journey David Bowie might have taken to become that artist. We've been fascinated by Bowie ever since we'rema kid. We bought every record, read every interview, every biography. What surprised us is how little most people seemed to know about his family background, about his life before that first real flush of fame. Besides music from the period, the soundtrack also includes work from contemporaries like 'Marika Hackman' and 'The Wave Pictures', who are all life-long Bowie fans.  

(Release Info London schedule; Februar 5th, 2021, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-simple-passion-film-online "Simple Passion" The story of a 'simple passion', that of Hélène August's (Laetitia Dosch) passion for Alexandre Svitsin (Sergei Poluniv), a young Russian diplomat, whom she barely knows, whom she nevertheless sees with the same intensity each time they meet. Since last September she waits for him to call her and come to her place. Everything about him is so precious to her, his eyes, his mouth, his childhood memories, his voice. The character of Hélène seems to be astonished by this state of siege, at once sweet and insidious. Pure dopamine. A drug, really. Hélène is an unfettered, free-spirited, woman. A mature, self-assured woman. Ultimately, she's a woman who submits herself out of love. But it's her decision. This is how we've to see the story of 'Passion Simple'; from a voluntary, not a victim’s viewpoint. Alexandre represents a free man, with a complex and elusive personality. He's the objectified man in the film. It's a complex vision of woman, the character is not a model of independence, because she's completely addicted to this man. And she's a bright woman, on top of that, who raises her son alone, who teaches literature at 'The Sorbonne', and yet she says that for a whole year, the only thing that mattered to her is this man. The protagonist waits for her lover anywhere, not only at home, thanks to today’s new technologies, to cell phones. So that she can wait for him anywhere in the world, even though the world is shrinking around her because all she ever does is wait for him. Yet she's always active and wanting, even if she submits herself to that man’s desire. To be an object of desire, to desire, to wait, to fantasise, isn't it the antithesis of an independent woman? It's a sexual film. Filming bodies is a way to glamorize characters. Characters who are comfortable with their own bodies. In the film, the evolution of their passion follows that of the choreography of their bodies. The film is based on Annie Ernaux’s 90s' bookseller 'Passion Simple'. It established a perfect and precise picture of passionate love. It inspires you with a lot of courage. Her words make you want to be honest without being ashamed. They give you the energy to be precise, sincere, not sappy. You've to dig really deep into your own neuroses to understand Annie Ernaux to the full extent. And when these neuroses are looked by a filmmaker who infuses passion with some radiant energy, then it's pure bliss. The ultimate power of the book is that it doesn’t try to explain things. Passion probably involves a will to submit yourself to the other person, either a man or a woman, and to put your whole self into it. Moral judgement has nothing to do with it. It's really brave to explore so meticulously female desire, passion, that place where there's freedom but at the same time a total dependence on the other person. It's scary. We've to understand where it’s coming from. We don’t judge her. It's a story about how lucky you're when you fall in love. About the emotional rollercoaster it actually is. The absolute loss of control when you meet someone, when you idealize that person. The film sparks off a debate around the issue of feminism. With today’s 'MeToo' climate, of course, But it's a precious thing that there are so many different visions of woman in films, that some might arouse controversy, or bring out tensions. The worse thing would be to have women who are all similar, to have everybody agreeing, it would mean that we've left a norm only to confine ourselves to another. We do not want to see only models of flawless independent women. The situation is interesting because it's vertiginous. Beyond morality, neither black nor white.