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The thing about getting older is looking back, it doesn’t matter how old you are, life always feels the same length. Like both forever and not very long. You’ve just seen “Uncut Gems” and you feel the nerves raging through your body after watching this ultra-nervous film? Well, I recommend you to watch the film “Colewell“. Believe me. After watching this film, you’ll feel completely relaxed again. There are no situations full of agitated behavior. No feverish activity. Everything is calm and peaceful. This cozy and pleasant film progresses at a leisurely pace. Like the gently rippling water in a quiet stream. Just about the pace of someone in old age who performs the same ritual every day and eagerly awaits his well-deserved retirement. Only Nora (Karen Allen) was not yet ready for that well-deserved rest that is now being forced upon her. The same routine every morning. Nora is an older lady who runs a local post office in the small village of Colewell, somewhere in Pennsylvania. And trust me on this, when I say you can admire her morning routine several times. A morning where she will check the chicken coop for freshly laid eggs. And every time she checks the state of one of the laying hens because it’s upset because of newly added fellow hens and thus refuses to squeeze such a fragile object through her poopybutthole. Then it’s time for breakfast (with a firm omelet made with fresh eggs) and a getting dressed ritual before she opens the door of the post office (located at her place) to welcome the villagers. Everything is performed dutifully and meticulously. And I’m sure she did this from day one. A changing world. “Colewell” is about aging and the preservation of certain values of life. At the same time, it’s also about the fear of losing these certain values. And the rapidly changing world around us. When a decision is made to forget about certain post offices and integrate them into the larger whole, Nora sees those values disappearing like snow in the sun. The day after she’s being confronted with this terrible decision at the US Postal Service headquarters, she sinks into an emotional pit and consciously skips her daily rituals. As if it all no longer matters. The choices that were proposed to her are both not adequate solutions for her. Relocating to a larger city to work there at the post office. Or retire. Both are alternatives that Nora disregards. The post office has a social function. The post office in Colewell has an additional function. It’s the meeting place for the local population. There’s gossiping, stockings are knitted, food is exchanged and life stories shared. In short, it’s the heart of a community. And the members of this community are heartbroken when they are told that their beloved assembly point is about to disappear. Initiatives are being taken to turn the tide and efforts are being made to safeguard Nora’s workplace. But as soon as they realize that this is a futile effort, everyone accepts the situation and the social contacts move to other locations. To the dismay of Nora. Do you want an action-rich movie? Skip this one. “Colewell” is endearing, serene and melancholic at the same time. A subdued drama about how it feels to grow older and then suddenly realize that your functional role has been played out and two arrogant younger people say this without hesitation in your face. Or you’ll be flexible or you pack it up and make room for the future generation. A realistic character study, without frills. But not entirely. The moment Ella (Hannah Gross) shows up at Nora’s place, realism turns into vagueness. It’s not really clear whether this is Nora’s free-spirited daughter or a figment of Nora’s imagination representing the younger Nora. Anyway. Do you like action-rich movies that are nervewracking exciting? Well, I suggest skipping this one. The easy-going nature of the film may well get on your nerves. My rating 5/10 Links: IMDB

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

(Release Info London schedule; December 8th, 2018, Electric Cinema, 12:00) "The House That Jack Built" America in the 1970s. We follow the highly intelligent Jack (Matt Dillon) through five incidents and are introduced to the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer. We experience the story from Jack’s point of view. He views each murder as an artwork in itself, even though his dysfunction causes problems for him in the outside world. Despite the fact that the final and inevitable police intervention is drawing ever nearer, which both provokes and puts pressure on Jack, he's contrary to all logic set on taking greater and greater chances. Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his.personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge (Bruno Ganz), a grotesque mixture of sophistry and an almost childlike self-pity, and in-depth explanations of, for Jack, dangerous and difficult maneuvers. Architect turned serial killer. Jack is a serial killer who accumulates bodies in a walk-in freezer while he tries to build his dream house. Meanwhile, he dialogues with the voice of his conscience, and makes more and more clumsy mistakes in his crimes. He leads us through his thought processes behind his increasingly more depraved acts of murder which he names 'incidents'. Lady 1 (Uma Thurman), Lady 2 (Siobhan Fallon Hogan), Lady 3 (Sofie Gråbøl) and Simple (Riley Keough) are all in the rank of unfortunate women who encounter Jack on his way. As he retells his crimes to mysterious Verge as if they're all individual works of art in themselves, the audience is invited to question the nature of artistry, where it's limits lie and when is far too far? Verge challenges and explores Jack’s stream of consciousness through a recurrent dialogue. Lars von Trier returns to the director’s chair to present the world with his most daring and provocative work to date, "The House That Jack Built". It's an overflowing, twisted, very black comedy with which he returned to Cannes years after being declared persona non grata because of his controversial statements. For many years he made films about good women. This is a film about an evil man. This time the topic of discussion is violence and art, and violence as art. It's a dark and sinister story, yet presented through a philosophical and occasional humorous tale. And with pitch black humour and undeniable cinematic vision, the film delights in taking us there. All is mixed with paintings, images from his own films and those of others, animated interludes, Glenn Gould and even images, yes, of the holocaust. The greatest cathedrals have sublime artwork hidden in the darkest of corners for only God to see.

The Hurt Locker is a 2009 war-drama film surrounding a squad of soldiers assembled in Iraq who are perturbed by their new man - Sergeant William James, a wildfire and an expert in defusing bombs. This is just an exquisite piece of filmmaking. Everybody involved is at the top of their game. Bigelow's direction is so tonally and atmospherically perfect for this movie (and the subsequent thematically-linked movies she would go on to make). If there's one thing Bigelow does better than a LOT of other directors, it's building tension and seeing it payoff in a satisfying way. FULL props to Miss Bigelow for this achievement in directing. Jeremy Renner hit his peak with this performance and it's hard to think of him putting in work that's better. He challenges that with 'THE TOWN' and years later, 'WIND RIVER' but 'THE HURT LOCKER' remains his most complex, enthralling character and performance to date. His provocative, erratic Sergeant James is as wild as you would expect, but Renner manages to deliver periods of restraint, where we see his quieter moments, something another actor might have chosen to load with a quiet rage, but Renner's ability to pull back, even for a second, is invaluable to the character work. I also have to mention Brian Geraghty's sensitive, compelling work as Eldridge here as an addendum, because his performance has always been overlooked and I strongly support more love and attention for it. A lot of that effort is achieved by Mark Boal's screenplay, which is superbly written and packed with some good dialogue, characters, and some lovely storytelling through action set pieces, which combine themselves beautifully with Bigelow's abilities. Even though this may not be seem to be a writer's film, it most certainly benefits from the tightness of the screenplay. The documentary-style cinematography from Barry Ackroyd was a bold choice to take for this move, as were the abundance of hand-held shots. But when you're shooting and the framing the frenetic energy of war, Ackroyd proves to be right, as his informal frames and shots capture everything through a seemingly ordinary lens, painting these soldiers as real as any another person so that their more inaccessible struggles, such as defusing bombs and looking out for insurgents, become emotionally-charged, tense moments that make the spine tingle. And where would this film be without the criminally overlooked score for Marco Beltrami? There is some lusciously effective sound design in this movie and it works to prolong the tension and amplify the payoffs, but Beltrami's score explores a mixture of themes and motifs, from the more dynamic expressions of war to the softer, more emotional effects of the battle. It's a beautiful score that I still listen to almost ten years later.

"The Old Oak" (Picturehouse Fulham Road)     The Old Oak is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, it is the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner) the landlord hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, and his hold is endangered even more when the pub becomes contested territory after the arrival of Syrian refugees who are placed in the village. An unlikely friendship develops when TJ encounters a young Syrian with a camera, Yara (Ebla Mari). Can they find a way for the two communities to understand each other? So unfolds a deeply moving drama about loss, fear and the difficulty of finding hope.   The ex-mining villages are unique. Sitting at the top of the village looking out over the rolling hills. A young mother had walked her child to primary school, come back home, and then hung herself.  This image and imagining her haunted us. Wandering around many of these villages it's striking to see the older members of the community who were miners, or family of miners. One remarkable older lady in her nineties was a nurse and tended the wounded (one was her neighbour’s father, who still to this day lived next to her) from the Easington mining disaster of 1951 in which 83 miners died.  Listening to vibrant people like her, and others who were involved in the miners’ strike in 1984, bore testimony to a powerful sense of community spirit, cohesion and political clarity which contrasted with the hopelessness of many in the present. It becomes apparent that the past ie a character in the film.   How did a once organised working class with militant unions end up in the world of TJ, the main character in the film. He’s a good man. Ex– miner, his father was killed in a mining accident and as a consequence of that his mother bought The Old Oak pub. She’s been dead 20 odd years and he wanted to help his mother, but his marriage has broken up, he’s living in the poverty zone and the pub is struggling, as are most of the village pubs around. It’s the only public space left in the village. Because of what’s happened to TJ, he’s lost. He had been an organiser in the village – previously he ran football teams; everyone knew TJ. But because of what’s happened to him he’s just been beaten down and he’s withdrawn into himself. Then one day, some Syrian families move into the village. And that’s where the story of TJ in this film starts.   TJ’s life did not happen by accident but by a series of political choices. It seems to us The Old Oak had roots stretching back, that might help us untangle many of the conflicts and contradictions of the present. It begs the bigger question of how hopelessness, unfairness, and lack of agency in our lives, play out in how we treat each other. This is how the character Yara comes in and helps us open up the story. She’s a refugee who came here with her family. She doesn’t know where her father is because he was taken to prison and that was the last she heard of him. And we know real people who still don’t know anything about their fathers, where they're. Yara wants to make life here easier and more friendly and to forge a friendship between the two communities. She's brave. She stands up for herself. She’s also sociable. She’s trying to see hope through the ugliness and unfairness of the world. The camera gives her hope. That’s very similar to what TJ’s role is, building bridges. You feel empathy towards Yara because she faces a lot of racism. Most of them were detainees in Syrian prisons and were tortured for doing nothing. But in the story of the film, they're not focusing on what happened in Syria.   Laura (Claire Rodgerson) is an old family friend of TJ’s. They used to be activists together, probably doing anti–austerity stuff. Then TJ has kind of lost his way but Laura has kept on fighting for the community while trying to build a family and hold down a job. When the Syrian families arrive she wants to be a positive force to bring the communities together. An irreverent force of nature, is how she was described in the script! She doesn’t take any shit but just believes that the community can be better. She’s a fighter. And she hasn’t given up like TJ. That’s we like in real life, you can’t just give up and accept the fate that’s been dealt to you by the powers that be.   The Northeast in particular is a really segregated place. There’s this idea from the Blair age of ‘problem communities'. It’s not problem communities, it’s problem systems, problem scapegoating and problem dumping. It’s a complex film, because normally in films you're dealing with one community. Here, we've two communities. We've to the local families and the local pub goers, and then within the pub group, we've people who are in favour of the refugees being here, and we've’vepeople who are against. It’s a complex tapestry of characters and people and families.   Photography is the thread that stitches the locations and the characters and all the narrative together. It’s the device that links Yara to her history, to her present, and to her exploration of a new place and a new people. It gives her the licence to look and see. And then photography is also the device of how we self–select. It reflects what we choose to see and what we choose to remember. Because what we don’t see, we then start to fill in with our imagination. So photography in the film is the prompt to what has happened, what is happening, but also what isn’t there. The film shows the pain that Syrian families must go through. It’s not easy to move your life from one country to another.   Written by Gregory Mann

(Decision to Leave • 2022 ‧ Mystery/Romance ‧ 2h 18m • Showtimes • London Tue 18 Oct ▪ Wed 19 Oct • Thu 20 Oct • Fri 21 Oct • Sat 22 Oct • Sun 23 Oct • Mon 24 Oct Institute of Contemporary Arts, 260 m·The Mall, Institute of Contemporary Arts, LONDON SW1Y 5AH, United Kingdom, 20:45 ODEON Luxe Haymarket, 400 m·11/18 Panton Street, LONDON SW1Y 4DP, United Kingdom, 17:00 • 20:15 Picturehouse Central, 600 m·Piccadilly Circus, 13 Coventry Street, LONDON W1D 7DH, United Kingdom, 16:00 • 19:00 Curzon Soho, 650 m·99 Shaftesbury Avenue, LONDON W1D 5DY, United Kingdom, 14:40 • 18:10 • 20:40 BFI Southbank, 900 m·South Bank, Belvedere Road, LONDON SE1 8XT, United Kingdom, 14:20 • 17:50 • 20:20 Curzon Bloomsbury, 2,0 km·The Brunswick, LONDON WC1N 1AW, United Kingdom, 15:00 • 18:20 • 20:20) "Decision To Leave" From a mountain peak in South Korea, Soo-wan (Go Kyung-Pyo), a businessman, plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei) may know more than she initially lets on. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, Hae-joon finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire, proving that the darkest mysteries lurk inside the human heart. Set against a contrasting backdrop of mountains and seas, "Decision To Leave" captures the tension of a police investigation while simultaneously being focused on the changing psychology of a man and a woman. The film begins with the detective Hae-joon investigating the death of a man who fell from a mountaintop. The character is similar to the police character Martin Beck from the Swedish detective novel series. When he meets the deceased man’s wife Seo-rae, he starts to suspect her at the same time that he begins feeling an attraction to her. The wife of the man who dies on the mountain, although she's Chinese, her maternal grandfather was a Korean independence fighter, and she's proud of her family’s history and her grandfather. When her husband who loved climbing dies on the mountain, leaving her alone, she comes across the polite and clean detective Hae-joon who's in charge of her husband’s case. During the course of the investigation, she feels she's being considered a suspect. Even so, she maintains her usual upright posture and speaks boldly to Hae-joon in her Korean that's awkward, but which expresses her intentions clearly. Amidst the rising tension of the crime investigation, the film delicately captures the emotions of two characters who feel a special curiosity and unexpected affinity for each other, providing an intriguing mix of suspense and romance. In particular, the unreadable words and actions by Seo-rae make her tantalizingly hard to read, not only for Hae-joon but for the viewer as well, raising dramatic tension. As the location of the story shifts from the mountain to the sea, as their developing relationship is torn between suspicion and attraction, and as the investigation slowly reveals more details about the past, the complex, subtle emotions that tie these two characters together will leave an unforgettable impression on viewers. The film follows the emotional trajectory of two characters: the wife of the deceased man, and the detective who becomes fascinated by her. Seo-rae, who lost her husband in a sudden accident, does not show any signs of grief or agitation. The police start to investigate her as a suspect, but she never loses her upright and imposing attitude, making the audience curious whether she might really be the culprit. She does not hesitate in her exchanges with Hae-joon, even though he suspects her. And despite her limited Korean skills, her unexpected expressions and answers stymie those who question her. Seo-rae can knock her opponent off guard without ever losing her composure, making it impossible to ever know what's truth, what she's truly feeling, and who she really is. Meanwhile Hae-joon, from the moment he first sets eyes on Seo-rae, feels a subtle interest stirring in him even as his instincts as a detective tell him to suspect her. Having been recognized for his abilities and named team leader at the violent crimes division, Hae-joon stands out from other detective characters in the police procedural genre with his neatly dressed look, clean personality, and polite manner of interacting with others. A person who has never felt disturbance in the slightest, he begins to change in unexpected ways after meeting Seo-rae. Having often suffered from insomnia, he's finally able to sleep deeply. "Decision To Leave" focuses on facial expressions and eyelines to better capture the true face of the two character's emotions. With bold zooming in and zooming out to visualize the character's imagination, and unusual perspective shots that capture the sense of watching the relationship develop between the characters. In particular, such as the houses belonging to Seo-rae and Hae-joon, or the police station and interrogation rooms with their differentiated structure. Things will will not work out between them. But when they express their intention in this resolute way, from an outside perspective it doesn’t feel very convincing. They may want and agree to separate, but given that deep inside their hearts they don’t really want to part, it’s a title that suggests they won’t be able to leave each other. To Seo-rae, who has always thought of herself as being unhappy, Hae-joon is like a precious gift. She must have been taken with surprise to think, For Hae-joon, Seo-rae is like the waves on the sea. Sometimes she's calm, sometimes violent, sometimes overwhelming. Sometimes she wraps you in her embrace, but it’s always changeable. She’s a very attractive character. The always proud and faithful detective Hae-joon is so capable that he becomes the youngest officer ever to rise to the position of Inspector. He always dresses neatly, cares about cleanliness, and has a polite, kind personality, but above all, he's a person who sincerely devotes himself to catching criminals. He records all details at the scene of a crime on his smartwatch, and routinely performs late-night duty because of his insomnia. He depicts a character who departs significantly from the familiar conventions of the police procedural genre. It’s to this person that Seo-rae approaches so boldly with strong curiosity. The subtle and tense feelings that emerge between these two people, which having begun as the relationship between a detective and a suspect cannot easily reveal it's true nature, will leave an unforgettable impression on the audience. With nods toward classic Hollywood and Hitchcok’s "Vertigo", the film infuses with ingenuity and a knife-edge precision that truly cannot be matched. A blend of investigative drama, "Decision To Leave" eschews the shocking breaking of taboos in which subtle emotional tremors coexist with pulsating inner waves. "Decision To Leave" is a seductive romantic thriller that takes a renowned stylistic flair to dizzying new heights. There's not much violence, nudity or sexual content. The film’s message is expressed in a subtle way. Like the sand is soaked by the waves. Because from a genre perspective it’s a romance. There are many shots in the film that are technically unconventional and physically impossible. With it's genre mix of police procedural and it's intriguing characters, the sensual mise-en-scène, "Decision To Leave" is at once the most classic and most original film of 2022. Written by Gregory Mann (Won best director at Cannes 2022)

The hardest part is… not knowing what’s happened to them. If there’s one horror genre that pops up ad nauseam, it’s that of zombies. Not a month goes by without a release in which undeath feast on innocent non-infected fellow humans. Since the cult film “Night of the Living Dead” by George A. Romero, a countless number of zombie flicks have already been made. Every once in a while they try to give it an original twist to make it more comical or profound. So that for once the emphasis isn’t on the bloodthirstiness and the jump scares. Something like “Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies” or “Warm Bodies“. These movies bring a smile to your face rather than scaring you. Others try to put in some more melodrama as in “Maggie“. “The night eats the world” (original title “La Nuit a dévoré le Monde“) is such a film that tries to follow an alternative path in the zombie genre. Just like in “Dead within“, the film deals more with the psychological state of mind of a survivor than about the destructive character of the infected persons. Paris once looked more lively. Let’s introduce Sam (Anders Danielsen Lie) who dozed off in a back room during a party of his ex-girlfriend. And then he wakes up the next day in an abandoned flat where seemingly a chaos has broken out. Everything is a mess as if everybody left in a hurry and the walls are smeared with blood traces and splashes. Soon he discovers that the streets of Paris are taken over by a mob of zombies. Gradually he realizes that he’s lonely and abandoned in the building and that he must do everything he can to survive this holocaust. And that’s what you are presented within this movie. A portrait of a solitary survivor whose daily routine slowly turns into a rut. The isolation and loneliness take their toll. Don’t expect to much tension. For those who associate a zombie film with bloody scenes and nerve-wracking moments, it will rather be a disappointing film. I’m sure that the words “boring” and “annoying” will be the most common terms used by seasoned zombie fans. But admit it. If you end up in such a situation, you will also have a limited daily life, resulting in a tedious dullness. A walk in the park around the corner, going for a newspaper or drinking a cup of coffee in a local bar are all options that belong to the past from this moment on. Because after the slightest noise, a whole myriad of mutilated zombies will be rushing towards you to consume you as a snack. In itself, the zombies don’t look so terrifying but rather moronic and stupid. Only the lack of growling or making creepy noises makes it rather frightening. So don’t expect any ominous sounds, bestial growls or threatening teeth chattering. Zombie flick for beginners. If you really aren’t a fan of zombie movies and you leave skid marks in your underwear every time you see such a hollow-eyed creature appearing around a corner, I guarantee it, you can watch “The Night Eats the World“. You won’t experience a shuddering moment. The only thing you will feel is compassion. You’ll feel sorry for Sam. How he slowly withers away and gradually comes to terms with his fate and the fact that he can’t go anywhere. His only problem is his food supply and the lack of company. That’s why he keeps an infected old man locked in a blocked elevator and uses him as a partner in dialogue. And to kill some time (how appropriate), he uses the apathetic looking zombies in the streets as a target to improve his shooting skills with a paintball gun. In a way, it surprises. Even though his part isn’t filled with entertaining dialogues or fascinating conversations, Anders Danielsen Lie manages to play a whole range of emotions in a convincing way. I thought the cunningly added twist was quite obvious. Don’t you think you’ll become delusional from such a secluded existence and the constant fear of an upcoming assault? The behavior of certain undead can even be called hilarious at times. And the relationship between Sam and his trapped neighbor is at least surprising. All in all “The night eats the World” is an original film with a unique view on the zombie genre. My rating 7/10 Links: IMDB More reviews here

(Release Info London schedule; May 29th, 2018, Curzon Soho, 18:20) "Double Lover" Crafting a deliriously cinematic web of suspense, shock, eroticism, and power dynamics, director François Ozon returns with "Double Lover". Chloé (Marine Vacth), who works as a guard at a museum in Paris, seeks to shore up her resiliency and enters psychoanalysis. In Paul Meyer (Jérémie Renier), the sensitive patient finds a caring psychiatrist who helps her overcome bouts with depression. Following the end of the treatment, both realize that they've fallen in love. A new chapter begins for Chloé when she and Paul move in together, yet Chloé soon comes to believe that Paul is keeping a secret. She impulsively visits another psychiatrist, Louis Delord (Jérémie Renier). Spiraling emotional and sexual stakes will push all three of them to extremes, forcing Chloé to take action in order to solve a mystery and save herself. It's an intense exploration of a woman venturing into dangerous romance. This movie is an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates novel 'Live Of The Twins'. The book has a precise writing style, keen psychological observations, complex characters, and smart storylines. The book tells the story in a more realistic way. The film explores the American author’s themes of neuroses, sex, and the dark side of split personalities. The film follows Chloé’s therapy the same way a psychiatrist might listen to his patients, in a floating way. The visual effects and changing viewpoints in the first sessions almost play against the dialogue. Initially Chloé sits monologuing about her dreams, her feelings and emotions, her family; and the audience should listen carefully in these first 10 minutes. J.C. Oates’ book focuses on the young woman caught between two men. It's important to place Chloé at the center of the movie. Chloé interacts, from the opening scene, in surprising ways with older women. Each of them holds importance in her journey. These women can all be seen as mother figures. At the beginning of the film, Chloé mentions an absent mother during her session with Paul. She expresses herself very differently, depending on which man she’s with. When it’s Paul, she’s well-behaved and reserved. When it’s Louis, she reveals herself as more daring and provocative, even as she lets herself be dominated by him. Chloé’s evolution can be seen in how she chooses to dress, and how she expresses her femininity. Sometimes the rest an absence of femininity. Encyclopedic knowledge isn’t what leads her to the truth. Chloé is riddled with contradictions. She's never clear and yet she’s always transparent. She’s very alive in all circumstances. The film embodies Chloé’s truth and evoke the realism of each situation, bearing in mind the complexities of hernpersonality. There's a secret within Chloé; she seeks the key to unlock it, and we’re right there with her on her quest. The starting point for Paul and Louis is simple and binary; good guy/bad guy. It quickly becomes apparent that the trickier role of the two is actually Paul; he triggers the imagination. The Louis character can be seen as an avatar allowing Chloé to live out the desires and fantasies she forbids herself from experiencing with Paul; it’s as though her love for Paul were preventing her from satisfying a more uninhibited sexuality. In any love relationship, even a happy one, there's an element of frustration and a need for a mental space where fantasies can express themselves. Our partner can never satisfy all of our desires; we often need something more, or different. Paul comes across as a good psychotherapist whose exchanges with Chloé ring true. Louis, on the other hand, makes outrageous claims while transgressing all the rules and framework of psychoanalysis. It’s as though Louis were saying out loud everything that went unsaid with Paul, and saying it brutally; with no taboos or superego. Everything relating to the two men is conceived in mirror images, especially the décor. Paul’s consulting room is comfortable and inviting, with leather furniture, plush carpeting, and warm colors. Louis’ consulting room is glacial with marble accents, cold colors, and fake flowers. As for the mirrors themselves, Paul’s are horizontal and Louis’s are vertical. Paul and Louis have different sensibilities, but they both have something to hide, especially from Chloé. Paul and Louis add up to a complete man. Paul is attentive, an intellectual a good listener, gentle, reassuring; you can lean on him as a paternal figure. Louis is more animal, arrogant, violent, unruly, sexually ravenous. They represent two opposing male archetypes, but each of them responds in his own way to Chloé’s desires. Louis is more subtle in his relationship with Chloé. With "Double Lover" François Ozon returns to digital and Cinemascope, aiming for a sharper, more contemporary image that's at times almost surgical but always aesthetically pleasing. The film plays with symmetry, reflections, and geometry. The film creates the impression that something is being built, that a brain is developing a thought. "Double Lover" is continuously surprising, ingeniously imaginative, always ahead of the awed and astonished viewer. Like a dream it unfolds, always hovering at the brink of nightmare, resolved finally in an illumination that's as dramatic as it's unexpected. We're made to realize, in retrospect, that we've inhabited an intensely explored erotic mystery; only when the mystery is solved. This film is about our need for the imaginary in order to cope with reality. "Double Lover" provides a path back to reality; with something that exists yet is even more fantastical and monstrous than what we’ve seen up to that point, plunging us into the abyss of what nature is capable of doing to our bodies. There's a serenity at the end of the film. This ending is either positive or negative; it's brutal and unrelenting, like sexuality, the subconscious, and desire. We all share the desire to pursue a sex life outside a romantic relationship. Everyone, whether they're in a relationship or not, needs their own space of freedom; a secret garden. The film is a love story that asks questions that are essential to all couples. How do we imagine our partners? What are our expectations of them? How far are we willing to go in accepting their mysteries, or are we trying to figure out what they might be hiding inside? "Double Lover" also explores fantasies that some of us may, or may not, have a hard time accepting; and explores the degree of sexual freedom we allow ourselves to feel with someone. Maybe you can't have everything with just one person. That doesn’t mean you've to go looking elsewhere, but what do you do with your frustrations and desires when they start to take over?

Relapse is a part of recovery. 8 Years ago I found myself in a similar hopeless situation. With my back against the wall. Desperately searching for a way out. Knowing that I had to change my way of life drastically. Or else I would be admiring the roots of green grass till eternity real soon. The will to change was there. The courage too. Only I couldn’t do it. And now, after all those years, I’m happy I made the right decision back then. For me, “Beautiful Baby” was a bitter pill to swallow. I didn’t think I would have a hard time watching it. It wasn’t crystal meth or something similar I had problems with. But there were so many similarities with my situation in this impressive film that it seemed like the story was about me. You’ll see an avalanche of feelings in “Beautifull Boy”. Pride, trust, distrust, despair, upheaval, hope, happiness, grief and discouragement. A hopeless battle that demands inhuman efforts from both camps, leading to an unavoidable outcome. Either the person succeeds or those who surround him must passively watch as he drinks, injects, blows or swallows himself to death. Well, the movie shook me up. Aggression, begging and promises. The nice thing about this movie was that it didn’t only focus on the addict Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet), but also on the people surrounding him (his father David Sheff played by Steve Carell and stepmother Karen by Maura Tierney). As an addict, you don’t have any clue what grief you are causing to relatives during your heydays. Everything revolves around getting what your body yearns for. It’s not like in “Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” and “Animals” where you witness the gradual decline of the addict himself. Both physically and psychologically. It’s not that Nic looks spic and span the whole movie. Towards the end, you can see the terrible consequences of the daily use of methamphetamine. That hazy look and a gray, unkempt appearance. But mainly his changing moods and aggressive behavior towards others are terrible to look at. His begging and making promises are nothing more than an excuse to get some extra cash to buy the drug he needs. I pray this will never happen to one of my kids. The only thing I could say to my wife afterward was: “I hope we’ll never have to deal with this with one of our two kids. Because this is a real nightmare“. As a parent of two children growing up, the thought this could happen to us scares the hell out of me. No matter how much you try to protect them from the evil outside world and you overload them with love and attention, the moment they give in to the things that seem to make their life rosier, you know that you are going to have an unequal battle. A fight where, against all your parents’ feelings, you might have to throw the towel in the ring at some point and have to confess to yourself that you’ve lost the battle. Losing a child is terrible. But breaking the bond with one of your children, pretending that they no longer exist and hoping that they get out of that period unscathed, is dozens of times worse I think. The acting was impressive. “Beautiful Boy” is impressive. And not only because of the theme. The acting of Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet is also unparalleled. You simply feel the desperation of Steve Carell who tries to help his son and always realizes that this isn’t possible. A father who tackles the problem and like an investigative journalist tries to understand what the notorious drugs do to his son Nic. As a comedian, Steve Carell never convinced me. With this role, however, my respect for the actor has only increased. Timothée Chalamet’s performance is certainly Oscar-worthy. You don’t get the feeling that he’s the acting rising star in the Hollywood firmament. It feels authentic, sincere and unforced. These two protagonists may already prepare their tuxedo for the Academy Awards. Proud to be a Belgian. And director Felix van Groeningen (Yes, he’s from Belgium) can also join these gentlemen on the red carpet. Thematically, the film lends itself perfectly to make an exaggerated Hollywood spectacle. But he manages to keep it serene and realistic. Artistic images are processed in an idiosyncratic montage with a lot of back and forth jumping in time. Flashbacks follow each other and the memories of both Nic and Davis flow into each other. I sometimes didn’t know where the story was situated on the timeline. But that’s the only flaw that I can think of in this otherwise impressive film. And all this with a tasteful soundtrack. I never expected to hear “Territorial pissings” from Nirvana in a movie. I was speechless. Some film viewers will probably just say it’s a family drama about addiction. Maybe they also find it monotonous because of the endless cycle of reviving and relapsing. On me, however, it made an overwhelming impression that unleashed a lot of emotions. I hope that every person who falls into the trap of any drug also can fall back on a loving, supportive family full of understanding and support, so they can escape from it eventually somewhere in their lives. My rating 10/10 Links: IMDB More reviews here

Watch the official movie trailer for Journey's End starring Sam Claflin and Asa Butterfield.

(Release Info London schedule; April 17th, 2019, Cineplex Odeon Westmount Cinemas 755 Wonderland Road South, London, (519) 474-2152 Wed - Thu 4:30 7:20 10:20 pm) "Breakthrough" "Breakthrough" is based on the incredible true story of one mother’s unfaltering love in the face of impossible odds. When Joyce Smith’s (Chrissy Metz) adopted son John (Marcel Ruiz) falls through an icy Missouri lake, all hope seems lost. But as John lies lifeless, Joyce refuses to give up. Her steadfast belief inspires those around her to continue to pray for John’s recovery, even in the face of every case history and scientific prediction. The film is adapted for the screen from Joyce Smith’s own book 'The Impossible'. "Breakthrough" is an enthralling reminder that faith and love can create a mountain of hope, and sometimes even a miracle.   "Breakthrough" is based on a true story of a mother, Joyce Smith, who prayed her son back to life after he fell through a frozen lake and died and how this miracle impacted an entire community. John Smith was underneath the ice for 15 minutes, with no oxygen. When 'EMS' workers rescued him, he has no pulse. They rushed him to the emergency room and worked on him for another 45 minutes. The doctors can not bring him back to life. When Joyce comes into the emergency room and she sees her son laid out on the table, dead, instead of saying goodbye, she grabs his feet and says, ‘holy spirit please bring back my son right now'. Immediately, 'The EKG' machine begin going off. When you’re underwater for that amount of time with no oxygen, the chances of medically recovering are slim to none. And so, for John to have no brain damage, no eye damage, no lung damage, for everything to have been healed, it's medically unheard of. For these reasons it's a medical miracle. The miracle of John coming back to life is only the beginning of the story and a catalyst for a series of other miracles that followed. Even before Joyce prays for John, it's miraculous that the firefighters and first responders are able to find him in the first place. 'Lake St. Louis' is massive, like finding a needle in a haystack. Fireman Tommy Shine (Mike Colter) hears this voice, telling him where he needs to go. He thinks it’s the chief talking to him, but later finds out it isn't the chief at all. The first doctor at the local hospital, Dr. Kent Sutterer (Sam Trammell), who happened to be the father of a friend of John’s, spent 45 minutes, an unusually long time, trying to revive him. Then Dr. Garrett (Dennis Haysbert), a world renown specialist, tells John’s mother, okay, Joyce, we're going to let 'God' do the rest. John’s recovering is a miracle. But the biggest miracle is the community itself. The thing that's so powerful is because of how the community rallied around John. Joyce is a fierce mama bear. She's not afraid to speak her mind. She's her faith. Her not giving up hope and her fight for John is what really brought him through this. She’s been through a lot, but man she's strong. She's a strong woman. Joyce Smith is a force. She has faith in what she believes in and she loves her son wholeheartedly. Joyce believes that John is created for a purpose and refuses to accept what the doctors say. Her faith stayed strong and she's just like a light of love, pure love. Brian (Josh Lucas) is Joyce husband. He's a man who's more introverted, Joyce is the one who speaks up and takes the reins. Brian loves his son so much that he can't even be in the room with him when he's like this, and it's not out of lack of love. It's out of so much love that he cannot bear it. And so it's a difficult and delicate character to play because he's not this sort of forceful father. Tommy's character represents the doubters and the audience members that don't necessarily believe in miracles. Tommy is that person's point of view, so they get to experience this film through Tommy's eyes. This is a modern-day resurrection story. 'God' is operating in miracles every day, but sometimes we're so focused in our day-to-day that we don't see them. This movie, and the story of John Smith and Joyce Smith and Pastor Jason (Topher Grace) will remind people that miracles are still happening. It will remind us of the power of prayer. It’s like a ripple in a lake when you throw a rock into it. The circle keeps getting wider. Those miracles just keep moving out. The humor in this film is wonderful. You will be laughing and crying throughout the entire movie. There's a fair amount of the audience that comes to a movie like this have some apprehension about believing the story and doubt that it really happened. It’s a great portrait of this town and this community. You meet all these different people and they all connected, and by a few degrees are all related to John in some way. They all come together to offer emotional and spiritual support. It’s just a really inspiring story about positivity in a town, and just believing in something and supporting each other. The music is very important. The favorite moment of the movie is the church scene. The film opens with 'Uptown Funk' and we've 'Can’t Hold Me Down' because of actual songs from when the incident happened over 'Martin Luther King' weekend in 2015. We also have 'Oceans' which, when it comes to worship music, is one of the biggest worship songs probably in the history of worship music. We've Kirk Franklin who's a good buddy come in and do a remix for a gospel version that's performed on camera during the prayer vigil scene. Roxann Dawson isn't familiar with 'Oceans', but it's love at first listen. The film uses it as the midnight vigil that's sung outside the window on the night before John is going to go off all medication and all machines to see if he can survive. When the community gets together and really prays as one for John. We've got music that John is actually listening to, music that's on his playlist. The audience can put themselves into John's shoes. The actions he takes, his attitudes, the things that he goes through will be identifiable. The film will be a catalyst for positive transformative change in the life of everyone who sees it. We live in a time so divisive, where everybody is on different sides of the political aisle, and have different points of view on so many things. That division can keep us from reminding ourselves, we're still brothers and sisters. We're still in this together. This movie can really stimulate and be a catalyst to get people back to praying together. Audiences take away from this movie, 'Hope', 'Faith', 'Love', 'Joy', 'Community'. And that all things really are possible. They may not always work out the way you want, and may not always fall in line, but when you're down you will see who really cares about you. Sometimes things don't work out the way we want, so that we understand we're more loved than we think. Anyone who watches it will believe there really is a plan for your life. Everybody will walk out of this movie feeling there's hope for us. In a world that feels chaotic, there's hope we can find common ground. Love really is at the core of everything, if you really distill it down, and if we can come back to remembering this. Maybe this movie can help remind us in one small way. Audiences that are not necessarily faith-based come and see the movie and see a story that makes them have some questions about what's faith, and their own faith. Whether you're a believer or not you take away something from this movie, and this story more than anything makes you go there's something bigger out there. Whatever your beliefs are. It's a movie where you go home and lay in bed that night and have some interesting thoughts and questions, and maybe some challenging ones about yourself, about what you're going through in your own life. Audiences take away that love can truly move mountains. In that collective consciousness or prayer, in that quiet still time, those moments really make a difference in that you can change your life and you can change your mind. And when you do that and you believe in the power of positivity and prayer you would be amazed what could happen.