Search Results

"The Tale Of King Crab" Luciano (Gabriele Silli) is a wandering outcast in a remote, late 19th-century Italian village. His life becomes undone by alcohol, forbidden love, and a bitter conflict with the prince of the region over the right of passage through an ancient gateway. When the quarrel escalates, Luciano is exiled to the distant Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego where, with the help of ruthless gold-diggers, he searches for a mythical treasure, paving his way toward redemption. However, in these barren lands, only greed and insanity can prevail. "The Tale Of King Crab" starts in a tiny place, an inn where hunters meet. But to get to the bottom of the story, you need to travel to the other end of the world, to Tierra del Fuego. Luciano’s (Gabriele Silli) story starts in Vejano and ends in South America, in Tierra del Fuego. Luciano is a stranger. The film nourishing the character as an outcast. Besides, we've very little information on his character, the exact timeframe of the events. For traces of the travel Luciano goes on between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Even less did we know about what happened to him in South America. This may be how the script progressively moved from a documentary to fiction. Emma (Maria Alexandra Lungu) is Luciano’s lover. She has a strong personality. She stands up to Luciano, and in a way tame his own savagery. This really is a key role. She might even be the film’s actual protagonist. Luciano’s the hero, no doubt, but the whole movie is kind of about her, in the end. The film avoids the typical scorched landscapes of an Italian summer and on the contrary show lush nature. The part in Argentina is much more traditional, though not without it's own challenges. And there’s always been a crab in this one. There’s no real explanation to the choice of a crab. The crab Luciano uses to get around Tierra del Fuego is not one of them. To us, it’s nothing more than a surreal, magical element. It's a place full of stories and unbelievable adventures of Italian immigrants. It's a story in Argentina to reflect all those myths drawn from this culture of immigration. You can hear different kinds of music in "The Tale Of King Crab", and each has a specific role to play. First of all, there’s vocal music that conveys the narrative content. The film choses popular folk songs. And folk songs mostly consist of a melody, often very similar to one another, and of a text that can on the contrary vary very much, depending on the region or even the village. References to characters of popular folk tales are very common in these texts. Some villagers for instance remember a song or part of a song about Luciano. Is it true? Who knows? Just like legends, we all have our own version, and all versions have common elements and variations. And that’s clearly what fascinates us in movies, catching these arborescences. And what’s even more important to us is to maintain and transmit them. Cultural tradition is not something that's fixed, nor completed. Same goes for music, the film wants to engage in a dialogue with tradition, to contribute to it's evolution. Then there's instrumental music, that engages into a dialogue with the images. The film usually avoids the Hollywood-style that consists in highlighting or amplifying the scene’s emotion through music. On the contrary, 'King Crab' seeks a counterpoint to the narrative. Let’s say we share the idea that auteur cinema is not a film genre per se. In the Italian part as well as in the Argentinian part, we've fun revisiting western figures and scenes. What we like in western movies is for example the idea that a very isolated location, a village, can become the scenery of a mystical story. This makes the strength of the narrative. Written by Gregory Mann https://www.ica.art/films/the-tale-of-king-crab

(Release Info London schedule; November 28th, 2018, Picturehouse Central, 18:30) "Three Identical Strangers" "Three Identical Strangers" tells the astonishing true story of three men who make the chance discovery, at the age of 19, that they're identical triplets, separated at birth and adopted to different parents. The trio’s joyous reunion in 1980 catapults them to fame but it also sets in motion a chain of events that unearths an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes far beyond their own lives; a secret that goes to very heart of all human behavior. In 1980, through a series of coincidences, two complete strangers, Robert Shafran and Edward Galland, made the astonishing discovery that they're identical twins. They had been separated at birth, adopted and raised by different families. Even more incredibly, when their story ran in 'The New York Post', another 19 year-old, David Kellman, realized he was their triplet, adopted to yet another family. After an overwhelmingly joyful reunion, they became instant media sensation sensations, interviewed by Tom Brokaw, clubbing at 'Studio 54', even appearing in a movie with 'Madonna'. But the brother's discovery set in motion a chain of events that, decades later, unearthed an extraordinary and disturbing secret. 'Louise Wise Services', an adoption agency focusing on placing Jewish children with Jewish families, is founded in New York City. Dr Peter Neubauer arrives in New York and begins training at 'The New York Psychoanalytic Institute'. 1951 Neubauer is appointed 'Director Of The Child Development Center' in Manhattan, where he studies the emotional health and development of prepubescent children. He begins 'The Twin Study', working with 'Louise Wise Services'. The study design involves splitting up identical twins and triplets, placing them with different families in different home environments, and studying the children’s development. No one from the families is told about 'The Twin Study' or that the babies they're adopting have identical siblings. The Kellman, Shafran and Galland families each adopt a baby girl via 'Louise Wise Services'. The triplets are born at 'Hillside Hospital', Long Island, the psychiatric wing of 'Long Island Jewish Medical Center'. Before they adopt, the families are informed that the child in question is part of a routine child development study. According to the families, it's strongly implied that the child continuing in this study is a condition of the adoption. None of the families are told that their child has two brothers. The families name the boys Robert, Edward and David. The triplets and their families are visited at home by researchers who test the boys and make videos and audio recordings. Robert enrols at 'Sullivan County Community College' in upstate New York. The first day of school people come up to him and call him Eddy. Eddy’s friend Michael Domnitz realizes Robert must be Eddy’s brother. The pair drives to Long Island and Robert and Eddy are reunited. Local and national papers run articles with pictures of the newly reunited twins. David is at 'Queen’s College' in New York. He sees the article, makes a call and the triplets are reunited shortly afterwards at David’s Aunt Hedy’s house. Records indicate that 'The Twin Study' officially ends, though Neubauer and his team continue to analyze and discuss the study data until the late 1980s. According to Lawrence Perlman, in 1980 Walter Cronkite’s TV show approaches Neubauer about a proposed TV report. Neubauer convinces Cronkite to drop the story, arguing that it would be psychologically damaging to the remaining twins to reveal their identities. Neubauer later fends off a more determined effort to report the story by 60 Minutes. The State of New York begins to require adoption agencies to keep identical siblings together. The triplets open 'Triplets Roumanian Steakhouse' in lower Manhattan, a diner with over 200 seats and a singing wait staff. Journalist Lawrence Wright discovers an article in a Yale journal that references 'The Twin Study'. Wright contacts the triplets and their families. It's the first time that any of them have heard of the study or Neubauer’s name. In summer 1995 Eddy Galland commits suicide. Lawrence Wright publishes 'Twins And What They Tell Us About Who We're'. The book includes interviews with Robert and David and their parents as well as with Neubauer. In February 2003, 'Louise Wise Adoption Services' officially closes. Same month Peter Neubauer dies. All records related to 'The Twin Study' are placed with 'Yale University'. The records are restricted until 2066. This is the most extraordinary stories ever come actoss. Robert and David, two of the three identical strangers, are engaging, natural storytellers, they've real charisma, but they're also guarded and not particularly trusting of anyone. When you see what’s happened to them over the course of their lives, it’s not surprising that they don’t trust people easily. One of the advantages of the project taking five years to get off the ground is that it enabled us to build a degree of trust with them. Lots of people have tried to tell their story before, and for a variety of reasons it’s never happened. When they first became famous in 1980, there was a lot of hype around them and people saying, we're going to make your story into a film and it never happened. They’d been promised a lot that never materialized, so while they're interested in doing the film, They're also quite cynical about it. The triplet's unique backstory threw up all kinds of interesting dilemmas for us. For example, normally with this kind of film where people are delving into really difficult things from the past, you would put them in touch with a psychologist before filming starts to ensure that they're emotionally robust enough to deal with it. But at the same time we're also acutely aware that the brothers don’t have a very high opinion of psychologists because of what happened to them. Ultimately we did make the offer to them and they chose not to take it up, and after careful consideration we decided to press ahead without it. It's also the reality of the triplet's lives; they're manipulated and lied to over decades and decades. In the 80’s and 90’s they're conspiracy theories about the political and media connections that some of the people and organizations involved in the study may have had. A lot of powerful people who would like to have this story silenced. A lot of time has passed since the study started, many of those involved have passed away though some are still alive and very reticent to talk about it so there were fewer people actively trying to stop us than there might have been in the past. This film is also abouy Psychology, particularly what happened in the 50s and 60s when interest in the subject first really boomed, and there were a lot of experiments that were ethically dubious by today’s standards. It's oversimplifying to say the people who conducted 'The Twin Study' were evil, although we can certainly understand the feeling. Why do good people with the best intentions sometimes bad things? These scientists were genuinely trying to further human knowledge by answering the nature-nurture question, and in the process lost perspective on the human cost. There was probably a significant element of ego and ambition involved as well, but that just makes it a more interesting story. The film doesn't want to demonize the scientists, but it's important, because the film tells it from the triplet's perspective and their families perspective, to acknowledge that what the study did was hugely damaging on a personal level. You can still see the damage today. The film also emphasizes the importance of the historical context In 1950s and 60s this was not something that seemed to be wrong’. Lawrence Wright admits that from today’s perspective it was undoubtedly ethically wrong. It's something that still bothers him even though he was only involved for a relatively short period of time. It was known about in very small circles within the twin research community, where it was regarded as highly controversial and something of an embarrassment. In 1995, Wright was writing a New Yorker piece about separated twins, and after speaking to a number of leading twin researchers, he was pointed to this obscure paper by one of the people who worked on the study. It’s mentioned briefly in his New Yorker article, and then he did more research and included a chapter on it in his later book, 'Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We're'. There are elements to their story that play out like a psychological thriller, a Bourne-style film with questions of identity. It's really important to do justice to that story. And to do justice to the triplets story you really have to think, When were they discovering information? You want the audience to be in the same position that they're and to go through it with them. To align audiences with the triplet's point of view, you've to keep audiences in the dark just as they're. Not in terms of CNN Films or any of the other funders pulling the plug, but every time something would happen or we’d lose access to someone or something, we’d think, who’s pulling the strings here? Your genetics give you a tendency to move in certain directions and your environment can overcome that gravitational force.

(Release Info London schedule; September 22nd, 2019, BFI Southbank, London SE1, Belvedere Road, South Bank, London, UK, SE1 8XT, 12:15 pm) https://film.list.co.uk/listing/667778-farmageddon-a-shaun-the-sheep-movie/ "A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon" Strange lights over the quiet town of 'Mossingham' herald the arrival of a mystery visitor from far across the galaxy. "Farmageddon" takes the world’s favourite woolly hero and plunges him into an hilarious intergalactic adventure he will need to use all of his cheekiness and heart to work his way out of. When a visitor from beyond the stars, an impish and adorable alien called 'Lula' (Amalia Vitale), crash-lands near 'Mossy Bottom Farm', Shaun (John Fletcher) soon sees an opportunity for alien-powered fun and adventure, and sets off on a mission to shepherd 'Lula' back to her home. Her magical alien powers, irrepressible mischief and galactic sized burps soon have the flock enchanted and Shaun takes his new extra-terrestrial friend on a road-trip to 'Mossingham Forest' to find her lost spaceship. Little do the pair know, though, that they're being pursued at every turn by a mysterious alien-hunting government agency, spearheaded by the formidable 'Agent Red' (Emma Tate) and her bunch of hapless, hazmat-suited goons. With 'Agent Red' driven by a deep-seated drive to prove the existence of 'Aliens', 'The Farmer' (John Sparkes) unwittingly dragged into the haphazard chase, can Shaun and the flock avert 'Farmageddon' on 'Mossy Bottom Farm' before it’s too late? 'Shaun The Sheep' is already an 'A-List Star', beloved by millions of all ages worldwide for his hit TV series and cemented as a movie star in smash spin-off "Shaun The Sheep Movie' in 2015. But, for his second outing in cinemas, the film pushes the character to places he has genuinely never been. And in ways that are bigger, more like an epic, 'Sci-Fi Movie'. Trying to make it feel like a very big, cinematic, very much 'Sci-Fi Extravaganza', and open up Shaun’s world in a way that we’ve never seen before. Shaun is always naughty, you know he’s always going to be skirting the corner of trouble. Shaun is the guy who will always press the red button, but he’ll always know he’s done something wrong when he has. Shaun is always about a spirit of rebelliousness, but always with a good heart. He'll always know he’s done something wrong when he has. If you see Shaun walk past the sweet shop and see him stop and look in the window, you think aye-aye. Something is going to go on here. And 'Lula' doubles that jeopardy. She's even cheekier and more out-there than Shaun. Shaun has to keep 'Lula' secret from the world at large, hidden from 'Agent Red' and her cohorts. Shaun is a very clearly defined character and always has been. But in this movie, we definitely see new levels to Shaun. He's given responsibility. And we see how he deals with that. It starts off as organic and then themes start to emerge. The film contrasts the everyday, deliberate plainness of his home farm with the colourful and surreal alien world and hardcore military tech. Shaun’s world in the TV series feels quite contained, quite small in a way. And that 10,000 light years away there's another planet. Then his world just gets huge. The visual elements become more exciting the bigger the journey he goes on. He's excitable and naughty. He’s a flawed character, but in an innocent way. In "Farmageddon", 'Shaun The Sheep’s' blissful, if occasionally mischievous, everyday existence is upended entirely by the arrival of an extra-terrestrial, a cute, crazy, sparkly purple-blue one; 'Lula'. And she’s not just an excuse for some hilarious and action-packed set-pieces, but a character who throws Shaun’s beloved family dynamic into chaos. 'Lula' is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth and finds herself pursued by the dastardly 'Agent Red' and her hazmat-suited goons, a bunch of secret and sinister government types out to prove the existence of aliens and capture their quarry by any means necessary. It’s up to Shaun to get 'Lula' home safely. But he’s going to have to pull off all of his greatest ever tricks if he’s going to do it. We've some fun in space. An element of 'Lula’s home is her spaceship and we get to spend a lot of time in that. For him, the spaceship is like the most amazing toy he could imagine. It’s Shaun having to take on responsibility and discovering what it’s like to have to deal with someone who's like Shaun, his naughtiest sibling, basically. Because this new character we've, 'Lula', has emerged as this beautiful thing from a beautiful world. It's decided that she would have certain otherworldly skills and party tricks. But until you put them into the plotting, you don’t know how they’re going to reveal themselves. Also, everything she does has to reflect that character and those attributes. She has to be consistent. If we’re saying she's cheeky and a bit of a handful, she has to be that. 'Lula' is in real danger because there are forces out there that will take her away. Shaun has to step up. These are feelings that many people with siblings will identify with. 'Lula' is the key creatives talk this brand-new edition to 'The Shaun The Sheep' universe, his new alien best buddy who's blowing early audiences away. She's a new element of nuance, of Shaun growing up. She’s a young alien who has crash-landed on Earth, and who needs Shaun’s help to get back home. She's a puppet unlike any other in 'The Universe'. She’s stretchy. She moves at a speed that no other character can. Her eyes bug out. Where 'Lula' has ended up is that she’s got such a warmth and charm that she’s quite irresistible. Highlighting her vulnerability and innocence is key, showing that aliens could be just as scared and sensitive as us. You’ve got think about what works in the world of Shaun because she has got to stand next to these characters and feel like she’s from that universe. 'Lula' has emerged as this beautiful thing from a beautiful world, who's beautifully designed. She has certain otherworldly skills and party tricks. But until you put them into the plotting, you don’t know how they’re going to reveal themselves. Where Shaun can, you know, throw a ball and smash a window, she can levitate tractors. She's chaos on another level. It adds a bit of chorus fizz and unusualness. 'Agent Red’s' underground lair is all very 'James Bond'. The stakes are raised in that way. First you see the government agents just in their sinister black van, then you find out they've a secret base deep under 'Mossingham'. The base is called 'MAD', 'The Ministry Of Alien Detection'. It’s been where it's since way, way back, even though they’ve never actually found a 'UFO' before! That’s why 'The Bond Theme' fit, because this place is set up around the time of those earlier movies, in the ‘60s. Not that things ever get too sinister, of course. It’s not quite life or death, but you know they're out to get her. Get ready to meet the dastardly 'Agent Red'. The sci-fi genre is famous for it's iconic villains, and the film delivers on that. So, we've various meetings trying to figure out who she's. There are lots of different approaches. We've a character that isn't black and white, who isn’t a villain just for the sake of being a villain. And she really is a great villain, even if the people she's surrounded by are useless! In particular, she has a team of guys in bright yellow hazmat suits. They’re kind of a comedic troupe that acts almost like a single character. They tend to sort of run around in a little gang, like idiots. Really, when you’re editing them, you deal with them like one character. One failed, not very successful, alien detector character! They frustrate 'Agent Red' greatly, but she’s not just the ‘uptight boss, she’s got much more depth than that. All the way through the film wrestles with who 'Agent Red' is. We realised that if we're going to redeem her, she has to be misunderstood. It’s taken a long time to find the right combination of shots and backstory, to make you understand her. She’s not cruel, she’s driven. She’s misunderstood. It’s easier to have someone just be a plain baddie when you've no dialogue. In many ways, the film makes this way more difficult for us But 'Agent Red' isn't that simple. Her human story makes for a much better resolution. You know, this is a film for kids. At one point 'Agent Red’s' motivation is that she wants a promotion, but for kids that doesn’t mean anything. What she wants needs to be clear from a child’s point of view. Money or promotion doesn’t resonate with children. It has to have a deeper emotional connection. As the film wrangles a vast flock of creative types, it's perhaps no surprise that the favourite character is that of authoritarian big brother, Bitzer (John Sparkes). But while Bitzer is synonymous with taking himself too seriously, the films attitude is a mix of both the serious and the silly; the perfect qualities to steer Shaun on his biggest adventure yet. The most important thing when you're in a position to make decisions is to make a decision quickly and concisely and if you're wrong at a later stage then make the right decision and learn from the mistake you made. In the first movie, Shaun and his mates had a simple goal; they wanted a day off, to get out from the farmer rules. In this the film looks at the relationship between the brothers Shaun and Bitzer. How would that play out? Not that Shaun wants to get rid of Bitzer. He just wants to be free and always do what he wants. So, the film gives him a new character that would force him to take on the Bitzer role, where he has to feel what that feels like, where he would start to appreciate what he does for him. And through this whole story, Bitzer realises that he takes himself too seriously, that his rules are too much. Mischievousness is close to anarchy, in a good way. Youthful rebellion, that’s his modus operandi, isn’t it? There he's, in a very small world. The world of 'Mossy Bottom' farm is deliberately very small and domestic. 'The farmer', as far as he’s concerned, he keeps his sheep in the barn, that’s all he’s aware of. So, they should have a very constrained worldview. But good old Shaun, he doesn’t accept that. He's always pushing the boundaries. Usually the rebel of the stories, straining against the authoritarian rules of the long-suffering sheepdog Bitzer, while always trying to make sure his antics remain unseen by 'The Farmer', the film sees Shaun discover an all-new, and deeply terrifying, emotional frontier. In "Farmageddon" the world’s favourite woolly wonder goes where no sheep has gone before. "Farmageddon" at once elevating the world of 'Shaun The Sheep' to epic new genre heights, but never forgetting the sheer pure heart beating beneath it's woolly exterior. This is a movie that’s about friends and responsibility and what it’s about to meet someone and become best friends. But then we also bring some villains in. We've top secret government organisations, robots, gadgets and gizmos so this whole world opens up. We’re always asking ourselves questions like, ‘what if 'Lula' is as cheeky as Shaun? What does her planet look like? Why do they get along so well? Is her home a bit like his home?’ The film always plays with those ideas. Shaun’s farm is set up almost like one in 'The American Midwest', isolated, with an expanse of cornfields around it and a big horizon in the distance, so the film plays some great crop circle gags. But in terms of the mood, this movie is quite eerie at points. It’s quite cheeky. It’s high summer as far as the corn is concerned, but everywhere else it’s autumn. That gives you your misty forest stuff for the scary bits and also some stunning colouration for daytime in the woods. The difficulty, because of how simple Shaun is, is how to get a human expression out of him. It’s when you get something meaningful out of something simple, that's really quite magical. And Shaun does that. It’s funny. One idea often spawns the next, and you don’t even know it at the time. Shaun is almost a silent movie star with a big heart, and he appeals across the ages. He’s the perfect character for this divided world. It's very timely, isn’t it? This film is something that everyone, adults and children, can sit and watch and all laugh together. There’s nothing better than a laugh to let people forget their differences. What 'Shaun The Sheep' is good at is sending up the way we're as humans. A lot of the premise of 'Shaun The Sheep' is that a lot of what these characters are doing is behind the backs of humans, but we're privy to that. "Farmageddon" is at once a tribute to the classics, and an hilarious, Shaun-shaped reinvention of it's many established tropes. It really plays to that classic, Steven Spielberg-style 'Sci-Fi Genre'. Capturing that spirit of classic sci-fi, and appealing to all ages, is crucial for the film. Most great animation crosses divides, it reminds people that we’re all the same. This is a story about an alien coming to our world and getting accepted. It's a film that works for adults and kids. It's like a Amblin films, these big popcorn family movies. And animation has moved more and more into that space. All characters have a backstory written down somewhere. Because it’s important that everyone has the same understanding of a character. Because if you’ve got 20 animators all animating the same character, they've to all have the same idea of who that character is. It’s essential. You try to keep the characters as concrete as they can be. The only time you might break that's for comedy, for a moment that's funny. And people know these characters. If you talk to kids, they will be able to tell you who Shaun is, who the farmer is, who Bitzer is, and what they’re like. We grew up watching 'Wallace And Gromit', obviously. And Shaun has a tiny amount of screen time in ‘A Close Shave’, but he was just the most adorable and funny character. And his story that has come out of that since grew organically but had these really strong foundations, in that the characters are very clearly defined. Really, it’s all about family. Shaun’s stories are told through the eyes of a boy and his mates. And there’s limitless appeal to a sheep doing things in the human world that the humans don’t see. He’s a challenge to create because in some ways the possibilities are limitless. But there are certain rules without dialogue. A lot of this is based on ideas that relate to our lives. This is a bit of a learning-to-grow-up story. That's sort of the start point. Okay, so we've this alien story. Something happens, the character learns something and moves on a bit. But what does that mean?’ You’re working backwards, always trying to think what’s next for the characters, what’s next for the relationships? The other interesting thing about these films, unlike other feature films, is that they're a serial, so you’ve got to end up back at square one. You need to find accessible things, for a young audience. That doesn’t mean showing them their own lives, necessarily. The film takes the view that there are certain experiences that are fairly common to most people, and certainly one of those is having a younger sibling, or a younger friend, coming along and sort of taking some of the limelight, the spotlight. The experience of being obliged to take responsibility. Initially he has no desire whatsoever to take responsibility, to be a caring fellow. He just sees it as being great fun! An enormous potential for fun. It’s a selfish choice, initially. And then there’s the fundamentally comic idea of the guy who has always been the mischievous one, now getting a taste of his own medicine. We're preparing for our future. The creation of an employee trust is the best solution we've found for our highly creative culture. And of course, those that create value in the company will continue to benefit directly from the value they create. British comedy in America has always been a mysterious thing. A few things cut through and work really well, and it’s really hard to predict what. We've done incredibly well in that world, to make such an impact. We very consciously set out to not take ourselves too seriously, because Hollywood movies for children often contained a very, very strong moral message. It’s become part of the package now. It’s what people positively expect now. That’s okay. But we’re pretty subtle with that moral message! The most important thing is that goodness wins out. Goodness, optimism, humanity wins out, and cynicism and calculation and evil doesn’t. Goodness in the most profound sense. But you don’t have to labour that point. "Farmageddon" is an epic adventure featuring space travel, an alien, a sinister government agency and a quest for the perfect pizza.

What was expected to be one of the years best movies turned out to be one of worst. Having been a fan of Prometheus, I was looking forward to a continuation of that story, which despite flaws was amongst the better sci-fi film contributions we've had recently. There was lot's of scope in Prometheus and a sense it could go anywhere it wanted it to...especially within the Alien film universe. However, Covenant does away with that and we get what feels like a stand-alone story and a generic one. Without spoiling the plot, it ties up the Prometheus conclusion very quickly within the opening 20 minutes....and what follows is a very by the numbers storyline (you're counting the numbers) primarilly focused on David (Michael Fassbender) the synthetic from the first film. Fassbender is on top form and provides one of the films few strengths. This focus on David dominates the first hour of the film, and then after providing scope for the character it quickly goes off the edge of a cliff and trancends into a generic slap- dash last half. Both undermining the character development it's created and further moving away from Prometheus. The last half provides some sub- par special effects, some bad dialogue and a re-run of set pieces evocative of Alien and Aliens that just don't work. Before Covenant was released it went through many script re-writes and I think this shows in the film. Especially between the first and second half. One part of the film is fairly fluid during David's scenes, and the other, feels like it's from another movie. Overall, Covenant feels like history repeating itself in relation to Aliens and Alien 3, one film provided a vision of a franchise, the other did away with it (although it did away with it well).

"Monica"     "Monica" is a portrait of a woman who returns home to the Midwest for the first time in 20 years to confront the wounds of her past. Reconnecting with her mother Eugenia (Patricia Clarkson) and the rest of her family for the first time since leaving as a teenager, Monica (Trace Lysette) embarks on a path of healing and acceptance. Monica is reunited with her family for the first time since her youth. Uncertain if her mother will recognize her, Monica moves into her childhood home, hoping to heal the wounds of the past and forge a new path of forgiveness and acceptance. Exploring the universal thematic dichotomies of aging and beauty, rejection and alienation, the film details Monica’s world and state of mind, the pain and fear, the needs and desires, of a woman whose journey ultimately illuminates the human condition. The film delves into Monica’s internal world and state of mind, her pain and fears, her needs and desires, to explore the universal themes of abandonment and forgiveness.   Monica is a film about family, abandonment, and acceptance. It’s also a film that centers a Trans-woman character. Monica has been on her own since her mother dropped her off at the bus station as a teenager with only 5 minutes to spare and the message, 'I can’t be your mother anymore'. We don’t follow Monica during those early teen years, and that time is only hinted at. We meet her as an adult, but one that still carries that wound of early abandonment that we get the first taste of very early in the film when she calls Jimmy (Joshua Close). Jimmy is a man we never see who we only know through her attempts to contact him, but we see and hear the need to try and keep him in her life, to not be left behind by him. Then Monica receives a call she never thought she’d receive, not from Jimmy, but from the sister-in-law she never met, asking her to come back home to help care for her mother, who's losing her memory along with her health. The film never denies how difficult it's for Monica to return to the scene of her trauma but also doesn’t deny her the joy of forging new relationships with her niece and nephews.   It also doesn’t give an easy resolution to her relationship with her mother, whom she now has to mother, who denied her mothering when she still needed it. Her mother doesn’t recognize her right away like she secretly hoped. Though that may have been the only way for them to find a healing place, because Eugenia is not the same woman anymore that abandoned her, and that might be a way that helps Monica heal a bit from the pain of abandonment and finally call out Jimmy. And in the end, Eugenia does accept Monica as family, whether she finally recognized Monica as her daughter is not fully answered, but we think she did, even if it’s not voiced. The film does a good job of balancing the moments of joy with moments of sadness. From the topic, you might not expect there would be laughs, but there are plenty during certain scenes in the film particularly at one move during a solo dance scene. There are also moments that just makes us smile while watching. The film ends with a scene of Monica’s nephew signing the US National anthem at school graduation. It's a moment of healing and catharsis.   When your mother becomes sick, this confront you with your past and the psychological effects of abandonment. Treading between the interior and exterior, the emotional and physical, Monica explores the complexities of self-worth, the deep-rooted consequences of rejection and the lengths we go to heal our wounds. Through a cinematic language that stems from the juxtaposition of the aesthetics of intimacy and alienation, the film delves into the emotional and psychological landscape of Monica to reflect the precarious nature of self-identity when challenged by the need to survive and ultimately transform.   Written by Gregory Mann Starts Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 18:15 Rio Cinema 107 Kupland High Street London E 82 PB

(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)

First it was borderline personality,then severe depression, yesterday, she said it was antisocial with schizoid tendency. She’s basically just flipping to random pages of the DSM-5and throwing medications at me. But I have a perfectly healthy brain. It just doesn’t contain feelings. There are films that aren’t much of a story and still leave a certain impression. The same applies to “Thoroughbreds” where two teenage girls, each with a specific personality disorder, come up with a plan to kill someone. The two haven’t seen each other for a long time. An eternity in which much has changed. One grew up in a rich family while the other knew a past in which the killing of her own horse played an important role. But despite the contradictions, the old friendship bond is restored. And before they know it, they are planning a murder together. Strange but true. Although it’s about a murder, it’s actually a funny and comic film. Especially because of the fascinating conversations full of dry, nonchalant humor. Sometimes it seems like the two young girls are totally insensitive people. Which is applicable to one of them. Two tasty actresses. The two main roles are played by two young actresses whose earlier performances I could appreciate. Physically they both look appetizing. Only Anya Taylor-Joy, who takes care of the role of Lily, has a more unique look with those big Bambi eyes. Olivia Cooke, on the other hand, is more the cliché image of the beautiful girl next door who’s slowly changing into a sensual young lady. The type of girl you’ve already met in countless feature films. Maybe that’s why Anya Taylor-Joy appeared in movies like “The Witch“, “Morgan“, “Split” and “Marrowbone“. All of which I enjoyed. Although I was kind of disappointed about “The Witch“. Not because of the acting. I was expecting more of a horror instead of a medieval drama. Dead serious and funny at the same time. Olivia Cooke’s acting was breathtaking and extraordinary in the film “Me and Earl and the dying girl“. A film that’s difficult to surpass. Even though her acting in “The Signal“, “The Quiet Ones” and “Ready player one” (although the emphasis was on the visual part) wasn’t so bad, the quoted film really stands out. But what she shows in “Thoroughbreds” as the apathetic Amanda, can compete with it. This was an enjoyment from start to finish. The way she plays the personality of Amanda is truly magnificent. And even though this film is meant to be deadly serious, her attitude will unintentionally cause comical situations. I bet you didn’t see that one coming. “Thoroughbreds” is such a type of film which is difficult to pin down to a specific genre. Yes, it’s indeed a crime film about two eccentric girls who are brooding on a devilish plan. And yes, unintentionally there’s also that comical approach through the behavior of the two ladies and the way they interact with each other. And wait till you see the unexpected ending which makes it all seem sinister. But if you think about it longer, you’ll agree it’s a logical outcome. “Thoroughbreds” is not exactly an easy movie in terms of genre. It is a fascinating film with the emphasis on the character and psyche of the protagonists. The fact that an intriguing and ingenious twist has been given to it only makes it more interesting. I was fascinated by the conversations. Bizarre. So if you like a well-thought-out story that isn’t simply crafted up, then you should definitely give this film a chance. And besides that, you can also enjoy Anton Yelchin, who unfortunately died in a sad accident, once more. I thought the last film he acted in was “Green Room“. But most of all, it’s the literary jousting that takes place between the two female main characters that made an impression on me. It sometimes seemed like a Shakespearean play that uses fancy words in a subtle dialogue. I never thought a conversation would fascinate me. The wonders of the world are not yet out. My rating 7/10 Links: IMDB More reviews here

(Release Info London schedule; February 28th, 2020, Electric Cinema White City, Television Centre, 101 Wood Ln, White City, London W12 7FR, United Kingdom, 15:00 · 18:00 · 20:45) https://www.electriccinema.co.uk/film/downhill/film-times/all "Downhill" Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in 'The Alps', a married couple is thrown into disarray as they're forced to reevaluate their lives and how they feel about each other. It’s the ski vacation of a lifetime for Pete (Will Ferrell) and Billie Stanton (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and their two boys Finn (Julian Grey) and Emerson (Ammon Jacob Ford); a week in 'The Austrian Alps'. With both parents unplugged from their professional careers, 'The Stantons' are, on the surface, ready for seven days of snowy family fun. What's poised to be a delightful week of skiing and togetherness instead becomes a series of awkward and emotionally fraught moments in which Pete and Billie have to be honest with themselves and each other in ways they hadn’t expected. Early in the trip, while having lunch at a mountainside restaurant, Pete and Billie have dramatically different responses to what's, unbeknownst to them, a controlled avalanche that appears frighteningly out of control. Pete’s reaction stuns the family and throws the rest of their vacation and the couple’s marriage into chaos, as Billie reevaluates their relationship and each is forced to wrestle with their own sense of self. How well can two people really know each other? And what happens when one of them does something totally unexpected? As a long-married couple, Billie and Pete know each other inside and out, or so they thought before their trip to 'The Alps'. When disaster strikes, Pete reacts in a way Billie couldn’t have predicted or imagined. These characters, including the children, are digesting the reality of what just happened. As terrifying as the avalanche is, what Pete does is just as terrifying, if not even more so. And it happens so quickly and it’s such a disaster that it’s hard for Billie to actually fully understand what happened. She’s in shock. Pete is also in denial. Unable to accept or understand what he’s done, he tries hard to carry on with the family vacation they’d all hoped for. Pete is pathetic in his own way. When you watch the movie, you’re also kind of sympathetic to him at the same time. He makes the most egregious error he could make, and he’s so sorry, but he’s just too childish to admit it. Otherwise, it could be easy to write off Pete’s actions, abandoning his family in a moment of danger, as wholly unredeemable. Billie is a self-assured, accomplished attorney and devoted wife and mother who suddenly finds herself on unstable emotional ground. There are countless times where the film is able to tell the story just because of her reactions. It's Pete’s regrettable response and resulting shame that make the story so relatable. There are no good guys or bad guys in this movie. Maybe there are good people making bad decisions, but even then, they’re questionable decisions. Billie ultimately feels a great deal of sympathy for her husband because she understands the shame he feels for what he has done. Providing a foible to both the established relationship and emotional tension between Billie and Pete are Zach (Zach Woods) and Rosie (Zoë Chao), a carefree young couple enjoying a free-wheeling exploration of Europe that they document online with the hashtag 'NoAgenda'. The couple ends up in a pivotal role in Billie and Pete’s understanding of the avalanche and it's aftermath. They’re a couple in the euphoric phase of falling in love, where your brain is just marinating in all those love hormones. You’re just so excited and sort of disinclined to pay attention to the limitations in yourself or the other person. Zach works with Pete in real estate, though it’s debatable how close their friendship is. Pete has been following Zach and Rosie’s European adventures online, perhaps with a bit of jealousy and envy, and, unbeknownst to Billie, invites the couple to drop by their hotel for dinner. Pete kind of reels them into their predicament to give him cover. He’s using Zach and Rosie as a smokescreen or a way of blocking the conversation from Billie about what happened during the avalanche. The two couples spend an incredibly squirm-worthy evening together, as Zach and Rosie bear witness to the unbearable tension between Billie and Pete. Having Rosie and Zach observe Billie and Pete’s meltdown is a great device; we can feel the cringing and the awkwardness. It also gives a small nod that these two people, in their own way, are also headed toward an avalanche if they’re not careful, and we get clues about what Rosie wants and what Zach wants as they've private time with Billie and Pete respectively. So, it's important to show, again, the theme of the individual within the whole. Zach also has private conversations with Pete, as Rosie does with Billie, where the younger couple provides perspective for the agonized husband and wife. Pete and Zach have the relationship that so many men have, where you go out expecting to have the time of your life and by the end of the night, you’re crying into your 'Jägermeister'. Zach is a critical component to Pete’s journey. Rosie and Billie have a poignant exchange when the two women unexpectedly cross paths the day after their stressful dinner. She’s almost a stranger to Billie but when they unexpectedly meet on the same ski lift, Rosie says, 'hey, what your husband did was messed up and you've every right to be angry'. Rosie is an outsider looking in at a situation and offering an honest, objective observation. Two other characters that help Billie gain perspective are Charlotte (Miranda Otto), a mysterious and outspoken woman who may or may not work at the hotel where the couple is staying, and Guglielmo (Giulio Berruti), a handsome and passionate ski instructor with whom Billie spends an afternoon on the slopes. Charlotte is the story’s most enigmatic and outrageous character. She's among the first people Pete and Billie meet when they arrive in Austria, and within seconds, she’s sharing tales of her sexual exploits. She feels she’s there to liven up the party and make people loosen up. She’s super confident about herself and doesn’t care about anyone else’s opinions at all. She has a very black and white kind of stance on things. It’s just totally different than an American point of view. She’s definitely a character that has a toe on the ground but is a little larger-than-life and lives her life differently from every other character that we meet in the story. Guglielmo is a guy that's very passionate about what he’s doing. He doesn’t think too much. He just feels a lot. His passion contrasts with Pete’s avoidance, as he helps Billie understand that sometimes we might need to feel rather than think. Billie's interaction with Guglielmo is a spontaneous, surprising relief and a tempting distraction from the anxiety and tension she is experiencing with her husband and her family. You've these characters that flow into the story of Pete and Billie in the right time in this moment in their lives where they’re figuring out if they can go down the hill together. Charlotte and Guglielmo are characters who, especially for Billie, come in at the right time with a message for her. Finn and Emerson are Billie and Pete’s twin sons. The characters have different feelings about skiing. As with Billie and Pete, the avalanche changes the vibe of the boys’ vacation. Finn and Emerson experience the close call alongside their parents and are deeply shaken by Pete’s reaction. They’re not just frightened, but confused as to why he would do that. And in fact, their father becomes a child to them. The version of the film uses the avalanche as a metaphor for the marriage. Billie and Pete can’t move on because they see the things that are happening differently.  The question is, can they sync up in their stories? They mimic life’s unpredictable nature where daily stress or even tragic circumstances can often be accompanied by comedic moments and/or relief. Billie and Pete are thrown off balance in a culture they don’t understand, frustrated by a language they don’t speak, and confused by customs and laws they’re not familiar with. They’re just these tiny, confused human beings. And then a massive, out-of-control avalanche rolls over them. The story shows us that it’s in moments of unexpected stress and imbalance that characters find their true selves and reveal the fissures in their relationships. We've both the woman’s perspective as well as the man’s and examine how this random, yet incredibly significant, incident affects them both as individuals and as a couple. Inevitably, the characters are forced to reevaluate everything they thought to be true. And as a result, the audience is left at the end of the film debating whose side they're on. From the start of "Downhill", there’s a sense of foreboding, even before 'The Stantons' come face to face with an avalanche. That feeling of uncertainty comes from a combination of camerawork, the sight of avalanche-blast cannons on the mountainside and the film’s doom-heralding score. The challenge is to combine humor, melancholy and a distinct regional feel in the music without muddling the composition. Such difficulties can be inspirational because you’re doing something you wouldn’t do instinctively. Sonic warnings also come from avalanche cannons scattered throughout the peaks. Though they appear ominous, they’re designed to blast away accumulated snow, creating intentional slides on empty slopes to diminish the risk of spontaneous avalanches on active ski runs. Anytime you see an actual avalanche on the mountain, that whole mountain range is changed and replaced from the one that's there. It adds a whole other layer of, oh gosh, this scenario that kicks off the emotional journey for this family is actually something that's happening 30 miles down the road. All of those elements adds poignancy that you couldn’t help but feel. For example, Charlotte dresses almost entirely in white, from her fur-trimmed ski suit to her glamorous casual wear. The color plays into other character's’ clothes. There’s a scene with Billie and Pete, sort of a pivotal scene in the hallway, and Billie’s wearing this white scarf. The intention there's to show this impending avalanche of feelings is sort of choking her, to put it bluntly. Another little signature is putting the characters in a white environment even when they’re inside. We've the apartment with the sofa, chair and carpet. That's really to put Billie in the snow even though she’s actually in a physical interior. It’s this thing again of being trapped in a blind environment where you haven’t got depth perception and those kinds of things. It’s just white all around her, so even when she’s inside, she’s still in the snow. The design concept aims to keep Billie and Pete in the eye of the storm, no matter where they're. The theme is that Billie and Pete are still trying to weather this large avalanche. Multiple things happen along the way, but it really is about two people spiraling and trying to figure out how they can navigate their way back to each other. Even when Billie and Pete are safe from avalanche danger, they’re still surrounded by a cold and snowy landscape. The scenery and the landscape are so stunning that people could think that they’re fake. Beyond the starkness of white, the film leanes on a muted palette for Billie and Pete, both in their ski wear and the dark grays and blues that round out their apartment, as a way of expressing the mood of their trip. While the locals take to the slopes in bright, flashy outfits, 'The Stantons' look is a little less lively. The point is that even within the sphere of wonderful enjoyment, 'The Stanton' family seems to be this slightly neutral-toned whole, because maybe they’re not enjoying the holiday as much as everybody else is, and that’s significant for the film. "Downhill" is a distinctly American take on an original story by Swedish director Ruben Östlund. It's inspired by the 2014 'Swedish' film "Force Majeure". It's a classic dinner party kind of question; what would you do if you're faced with this sort of event? How would you react? What appeals about the story is the idea that a person can be viewing their life through a certain lens, and what happens when that lens is taken off, what’s different? And is, in fact, anything different? How can a subtle shift in perspective, if facing an avalanche can be subtle, have such profound emotional effects. It’s a very big crisis, and it’s a big actual event that happens in the film. There’s a long-standing tradition in every art form of taking a work of art that you admire and interpreting it in a different context. It’s the film version of a cover song. You take a movie that you love, that has a very particular  sensibility and showing how you can riff on it. The intention is to take the ideas that the original movie had and explore them in a new context. It's a character-driven ballet between comedy and drama.

(Glasgow Film Festival ● Select event time ● Here are a list of days and times at which this event will take place ● March Sun 06 Screening time 20:20 ● Mon 07.Screening time 15:00) https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/shows/red-rocket-nc-18 "Red Rocket" "Red Rocket" in a magnetic, live-wire performance. It's a darkly funny, raw, and humane portrait of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), an uniquely 'American' hustler, and a hometown that barely tolerates him. Mikey Saber is illuminating the hustler’s code, or something akin to it. Maybe it’s an overall philosophy of life. Maybe it’s just a way of explaining his character. Whatever it's, there’s a truth to it. Some people, if there’s a bottle thrown into a crowd, they’re going to get hit in the head with it every time. Other people step in shit and come out smelling like roses and nothing ever happens to them. Mikey’s just one of those guys. He doesn’t think about the future. He doesn’t care about ramifications. Flat broke and scheming, Mikey is back home in his tiny town of Texas City, T after a Los Angeles flame-out, hoping to move back in with his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and mother-in-law Lil (Brenda Davis). They shouldn’t let him in, but they do. Mikey’s a man-child, constantly sugarcoating things for his own mental state. He’s feeding his head with positivity because he can’t really face the negative place he's in. It’s literally the only way he can cope. Everything is always somebody else’s fault. You see a lot of 'America' in that. That’s definitely an 'American' characteristic, somebody who's striving for success and it doesn’t matter who’s left trampled on the sidelines. You see it in "There Will Be Blood" and "The Wolf Of Wall Street" too, these ruthless guys who exploit to get to the top. The film uses comedy to a degree to soften Mikey, to show how one could be attracted to him. The central character is a distinctively American figure; a confidence man, an irrepressible optimist and a total grifter. Like snake-oil salesmen and Ponzi schemers, Mikey earns his living as a specific kind of freeloader, feeding off other people’s false hopes and real work; a suitcase pimp. It's a total revelation for the character. Since leaving the adult movie industry herself, Lexi has retreated to their hometown and slipped into drugs, but Mikey’s return sparks in her a mass of conflicting feelings, not all of them negative. She can see through the bullshit and can identify it immediately. But she's also a woman who's very lost and feeling trapped and addicted. Sometimes when you love someone, it can cloud your judgment and you can fall back into bad habits easily. Lexi’s character is crucial to the design of the film. She’s a keyhole into Mikey’s past and also, potentially, an opportunity for his redemption. Forgiveness may be off the table, but there’s a thaw. Still, Texas City doesn’t really know what to do with Mikey, this oddball former resident and washed up pseudo-celebrity riding around town on a borrowed bicycle. He’s un-hirable, unmanageable and largely irredeemable, especially to Lexi’s no-nonsense mother Lil, Significantly, "Red Rocket" is about Mikey’s eventual comeuppance at the hands of a community of women who grow tired of the hustles he believes he’s pulling off at their expense. Leading that charge, and quick to see through him, is Leondria (Judy Hill), a pot-supply kingpin. A dark comedy with a keen attention to the dynamics of sex and power, "Red Rocket" works on it's own terms as a high-wire balancing act and mesmerizing character-driven drama. Intriguingly, though, we sometimes hear snippets of a very different off-screen drama; a careful listener will realize that the film, about a malignant narcissist on the outs, is set during the fateful summer of 2016. "Red Rocket" is a product of bold thinking and even bolder resourcefulness. An exhilarating realm of dark comedy, stylistic ambition, and pure off-the-grid adventurousness. It's a film that turns on a pin from live-wire comedy to quiet poignancy and back again, a movie as big and complex as the character at it's center. Rarely explored on film, much less on TV or in literature, the suitcase pimp is a male hanger-on, often a loosely employed boyfriend or husband, who manages a more popular female porn star, grooming and using her. Their lives are all about exploitation and using the women they’re with. The women make thousands while the men are making hundreds at best. So they've to live off the women, financially. There’s a self-denial, a holier-than-thou attitude, an obliviousness, an ignorance that these guys have. Because that’s how we think the magic happens in life, when you don’t have any expectations and you just go. And that’s what happened with this movie. It’s the full spectrum of our obscene, over-the-top culture, a culture of excess. written by Gregory Mann

Why Hide? (Newcastle Film Festival) A derivative, clichéd and low brow attempt at a comedy horror. This film stole from (the makers might say paid homage to) the original Evil Dead. We got similar jokes to Shaun of the Dead (in this case, a cricket bat is replaced by a 9-iron as a comical weapon) but "Shaun" respected the genre it was poking fun at more. I was also reminded of a lesser known British comedy The Cottage but I can't put my finger on why. A lot also seemed stolen from the Conjuring and Insidious films. I.e. creepy inexplicable set pieces which tended to end in a loud bang. There was also one scene I'm fairly sure was ripped straight from the god-awful Insidious: The Last Key. On a side note, it's also a bit awkward when the director brings his own intoxicated crowd (I assume some of the film's actors and the director's mates) to the film who then woop and laugh loudly at every low brow "joke" while the rest of the audience sit in silence. Oh that guy is camp...ahahahah (always hilarious :/)... oh look at that overweight guy running around in his white pants hahaha.... *sigh*. The effects of the creature weren't bad considering this was a low budget production, but it was never quite clear to me what the creature was or what it could do, which removed any kind of fear for me.

(London Filn Festival, Thursday October 10th 2019, Odeon Tottenham Court Road, Central Cross, 30 Tottenham Court Rd, London W1T 1BX, UK, 18:15 pm) https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=cunningham&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id= "Cunningham" "Cunningham" traces Merce’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery (1944–1972), from his early years as a struggling dancer in postwar New York to his emergence as one of the world’s most visionary choreographers. The '3D' technology weaves together Merce's philosophies and stories, creating a visceral journey into his innovative work. A breathtaking explosion of dance, music, and never-before-seen archival material, the film is a timely tribute to one of the world’s greatest modern dance artists. During the years 1942-1972, he made his dances against all odds. He was always ready to place himself in unfamiliar situations and find new solutions. Throughout his career he embraced new technologies, from 16mm, television and video to the use of computers, body sensors and motion-capture technology. Cunningham had arrived in the city in 1939 with an invitation to join Graham’s company. In the 1940s, Merce Cunningham, along with John Cage, began a journey that would change the relationship between contemporary dance, music and art. Cunningham proposed the revolutionary idea that dance could exist independent of music, a concept that would dominate his unparalleled career for more than half a century. He popularized the idea of dance as a visual experience and trained some of the greatest dancers of his time, including Paul Taylor, Viola Farber, Douglas Dunn, Charles Moulton, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Ashley Chen and Jonah Bokaer. 'The United States', and New York in particular, was becoming the global center of artistic innovation. 'Abstract Expressionist' painters like Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, radical composers including Arnold Schoenberg, and Martha Graham’s revolutionary troupe dominated the cultural scene. In 1944, he presented his first solo concert with composer John Cage, who became his frequent collaborator and lifelong romantic partner. Together they explored groundbreaking artistic philosophies, incorporating experiments with chance into their work as a way to free themselves from preconceived ideas. The pair acquired a third creative partner in 1952 when they met the then- emerging artist Robert Rauschenberg at the experimental, arts-focused 'Black Mountain College' in North Carolina. Like Cunningham and Cage, Rauschenberg resisted labels during his lengthy career, but is widely acknowledged as a forerunner in many art movements that developed after 'Abstract Expressionism'. Without a steady source of income, they collected scrap wood off the street and burned it to keep warm in winter. Cunningham rehearsed in his living space and often alone. In 1953, Cunningham launched 'The Merce Cunningham Dance Company' so he could concentrate full-time on his explorations. "Cunningham" includes a treasure trove of archival materials, a visual record of the dancer’s singular talent, Merce alone and with his company, rehearsing, performing, choreographing, and teaching. Often dressed in rehearsal clothes, he and his dancers bend, leap, spin and fall with abandon, combining what he thought were the best elements of classical ballet with the most interesting innovations in modern dance. One of the most memorable is a Rauschenberg-designed pointillist backdrop used for the original presentation of 'Summerspace', a 1958 collaboration. In the 1960s, Andy Warhol, the major figure of New York avant-garde film world, spent quite a bit of time in Merce’s studio. By the early 1970s, Merce began working with film and video himself primarily with filmmaker Charles Atlas. When Carolyn Brown, the last original member of his first company, left in 1972, that, the end of an era. Dance pioneer Merce Cunningham created some of the most iconic, influential work of his generation, incorporating the groundbreaking artistic ideals of mid-century visual arts and music, and redefining his art form. During a lifetime of artistic engagement with such diverse musicians as John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol, Cunningham created a new dance technique and celebrated movement as manifestation of being human and of being alive. After his death in 2009 at the age of 90, many felt uncertain about the future of his legacy and his fearless innovations. The new documentary "Cunningham" guarantees that his work will live on, in a stunning immersive experience that preserves some of his greatest works. Neither a straightforward biopic nor a traditional concert film, "Cunningham" was conceived as a 93-minute art piece that would tell the master’s story through his work. Combining Cunningham’s fascinating life experiences with his landmark artistic achievements, the film forges a delicate balance between facts and metaphors, exposition and poetry. A tribute to the visionary artist’s creative genius in a journey through the first 30 years of his career in New York City, the film traces the evolution of his thought and channels his spirit. Personal photographs, intimate letters, 16mm and 35mm footage, and home movies of performances, rehearsals, tours and gatherings offer the audience a glimpse of the choreographer’s visionary mind, while excerpts of iconic Cunningham works are performed by the last generation of his dancers and reimagined for '3-D' cinema. A '3D' movie about an avant-garde choreographer? We can make documentaries about choreographers or dancers as people, about life of a dance company and so on. But how to make a film that will allow the audience to experience choreographers work? "Cunningham" is based on an iconic photo of Merce’s dancers posing in the Robert Rauschenberg’s pointillist décor of his piece 'Summerspace', which was taken by Robert Rutledge in 1958. Merce staged this photograph himself by dropping Rauschenberg’s canvas on both the wall and the floor so it surrounded the dancers. It becomes that even back in the 1950s, before Merce developed the idea of an event, he had been longing to create immersive environments for his dances. The film is drawn to the genius of Merce Cunningham, the intricacies of his mind; his approaches that he invented making his dances; and his philosophies that he followed living his life and re-defining ideas about being human. His story is an incredible triumph of the human spirit. During the first 30 years of his career, between 1942-1972, he persevered, with great determination and stamina, to make dances against all odds. He was always ready to get outside himself, to place himself in unknown situations, and find new solutions. All this took place in a unique artistic climate, during the 1950s and 1960s in New York, when Cunningham and his collaborators were united by their poverty and ideas and art and life had virtually no separation. Merce’s dances evoke a sense of timelessness, a space in between rational and irrational, intellectual and emotional, immediate and eternal, that truly renews us. '3D' offers interesting opportunities as it articulates the relationship between the dancers in and to the space, awaking a kinesthetic response among the viewers. It also favors uncut choreographed shots, moving camera, and multiple layers of action in relation to the setting, everything that allows working with Merce’s choreography on screen in new ways. Merce and '3D' represent an idea fit, not only because of his use of space but also because of his interest in every technological advancement of his time, from 16mm film to motion capture, and his willingness to adapt and work in unconventional settings/locations, creating over 700 Cunningham Events, I.e. performances comprised of excerpts from different dances adapted for a specific location with the audience following the dancers. Today, '3D' allows for his dream to come true. The film is a 90-minute artwork in itself, which tells Merce’s story through his dances. It's a hybrid, rooted in both imaginary worlds and moving life experiences. A delicate balance between facts and metaphors, exposition and poetry. A single camera approach is used to choreograph the viewer’s eye, highlighting the dimensional relationships among performers and settings, uniquely enabled by '3D' technology. The aspiration has been to develop a unique language, integrating all the elements of the film in a subtle, distinct and poetic way, in Merce’s spirit. Seeing a dance through the lens of a camera changes everything. While viewing a dance on a stage you are free to look anywhere in the space, whereas the camera has to be carefully and strategically placed as it guides the eye within the limits of its perspective. The lens often skews a shape. For instance, it can make an arm look lifted when it should simply be horizontal or it can distort the spacing dramatically. With the true artistic collaboration that we developed, these small details could be worked out seamlessly and we developed a true understanding for one another’s point of view. Film is forever, so there's an enormous amount of pressure for the performers and an enormous responsibility in making the final choices on the takes. But beyond that trigger of emotion is the fact that he and his early collaborators and dancers tell the story, in their own voices, which gives a weight and power to this film that's undeniable. His willingness to break boundaries has been infectious and engendered courage in all of us. You've to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.

PADDY CONSIDINE’S JOURNEYMAN – BRAND NEW TRAILER RELEASED IN THE UK ON 16TH FEBRUARY 2018 Paddy Considine’s second feature JOURNEYMAN will be released by STUDIOCANAL on 16th February 2018. Considine not only wrote and directed the film but also stars alongside Jodie Whittaker (Upcoming Doctor Who), Anthony Welsh (My Brother The Devil), Tony Pitts (War Horse) and Paul Popplewell (’71). Many of the supporting cast make their acting debuts and take on roles that closely mirror their actual professions with appearances from boxers, boxing commentators, nurses and occupational therapists. Journeyman was developed and shot in close collaboration with the boxing community and medical profession. The film is produced by Diarmid Scrimshaw (who also worked with Considine on Dog Altogether and Tyrannosaur) and is financed by Film4, the BFI, Screen Yorkshire, and the Wellcome Trust. Journeyman tells the story of middleweight boxing champion Matty Burton (Paddy Considine). After winning a punishing title defense on points, Matty collapses at home. The journey towards regaining his speech, movement and memory will be the toughest fight he’ll ever face, and the prize could not be greater, for his relationship with his wife Emma (Jodie Whittaker) and baby daughter Mia are on the line… Journeyman is a powerful and beautiful story about loss and, ultimately, triumph. It's about our identity, and how in life we sometimes have to dig deep into our soul to discover who we really are.