- Susan May
What's on at the movies Sept 1 2016?
Welcome to another week in film. I've been busy replying to emails and planning wonderful events and competitions for the launch of The Troubles Keeper in mid-October.
Early reviews on The Troubles Keeper have been fantastic so I'm beginning to breathe again. If you would like an absolutely FREE pre-release copy come join my Wonderful Readers' Club. Join me up!
I've been busy chatting to early readers about The Troubles Keeper and working on a short story for an upcoming Alternative History anthology. Haven't got the name for it, yet, but it's coming along beautifully and I think you will find it intriguing.
THE INFILTRATOR ✪✪✪✪ ½ Opens September 1 (limited release)
We just don't have enough great dramas. Two of my favourite films in the last twelve months have been dramas, Eye in the Sky and Sicario. Now here's another to add to the lists of greats. Of course, this film was going to be great Bryan Cranston is in it. He has a way of creating expressions on his face and you know his mind is churning through something thick. Pair his ability with John Leguizamo's talent for playing gritty side-kicks and you have some mesmerising acting happening on screen.
Then throw in a great, almost unbelievable, true story and, at least for me, I was almost off the edge of my seat. These guys playing undercover as high end associates to true life drug dealers are in a dangerous game. If you like your dramas pacy and scary go see this.
Film Blurb
The true story of one man against the biggest drug cartel in history Based on a true story, Federal agent ROBERT "BOB" MAZUR (Bryan Cranston) goes deep undercover to infiltrate Pablo Escobar’s drug trafficking scene plaguing the nation in 1986 by posing as slick, money-laundering businessman Bob Musella.
Teamed with impulsive and streetwise fellow agent EMIR ABREU (John Leguizamo) and rookie agent posing as his fiancé KATHY ERTZ (Diane Kruger), Mazur befriends Escobar’s top lieutenant ROBERTO ALCAINO (Benjamin Bratt). Navigating a vicious criminal network in which the slightest slip-up could cost him his life, Mazur risks it all building a case that leads to indictments of 85 drug lords and the corrupt bankers who cleaned their dirty money, along with the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, one of the largest money-laundering banks in the world.
NERVE ✪✪✪ Opens September 1
I wish my eldest son had come along to this. He's the perfect demographic at sixteen. This isn't one for us adults although we can sit and watch and nod affirmation that online socialising and playing games with strangers is dangerous. This film takes that idea to the extreme ... think Michael Douglas's The Game for the millennials.
The first half is quite interesting and does get along a pace. The leads Emma Roberts and Dave Franco give reasonable performances, although it is interesting that they are both in their late twenties but playing teenagers. It falls down at the end with a cliched wind up that is far too neat. However, it certainly isn't a fail and for the teen to early twenties market it will do well. It might even become a cult classic (mind you, who can tell why anything makes it into that realm). If your teenager wants to see it, let them. It's not too violent and might scare them off playing games online. Hope someone doesn't take the idea of this film and make it real.
Film Blurb
Industrious high school senior, Vee Delmonico, has had it with living life on the sidelines. When pressured by friends to join the popular online game Nerve, Vee decides to sign up for just one dare in what seems like harmless fun. But as she finds herself caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition partnered with a mysterious stranger, the game begins to take a sinister turn with increasingly dangerous acts, leading her into a high stakes finale that will determine her entire future.
GIRL ASLEEP (not reviewed) Opens September 1 Showing at Luna Cinemas in Perth
The indie film, directed by Rosemary Myers, written by Matthew Whittet and produced by Jo Dyer, was up against Spin Out, The Death and Life of Otto Bloom and WA's Jasper Jones. I'd say this is one not to be missed. I'm going to catch it shortly.This Aussie film just won the Cinefest OZ Festival's $100,000 prize along with a bunch of other awards at other festivals.
WIN! WIN! To celebrate the release of Girl Asleep on Sept 1st, we're giving away DVD packs that honor the best + worst of the teenage experience! Simply purchase a ticket in the first week of release, write your details on the back + drop it into the entry box in the Leederville foyer to enter!
Film Blurb
The world is closing in on Greta Driscoll (Bethany Whitmore).On the cusp of turning fifteen she can’t bear to leave her childhood, it contains all the things that give her comfort in this incomprehensible new world. She floats in a bubble of loserdom with her only friend Elliott (Harrison Feldman), until her parents throw her a surprise 15th birthday party and she’s flung into a parallel place; a world that’s weirdly erotic, a little bit violent and thoroughly ludicrous – only there can she find herself. A potently comic journey into the teenage mind, scripted by original playwright Matthew Whittet, Girl Asleep is a delight. Winner of the Age Critics Award for Best Australian Feature at MIFF 2016; Jury Prize for best film. Winner of the Adelaide Film Festival Audience Award, Girl Asleep is the filmmaking debut of Windmill Theatre Artistic Director Rosemary Myers. Adapted from Windmill’s acclaimed 2014 stage production, it’s a wonderfully eccentric modern fairy tale of female adolescence.
2016 Seattle International Film Festival; Most Popular Feature Adelaide Film Festival 2016
BLOOD FATHER (not reviewed) Opens September 1
I haven't seen this film, but I'm told by fellow reviewers it's by the numbers. However, Mel Gibson is very good and it is still entertaining. I might try and see it during the week and will let you know.
Film Blurb
Mel Gibson returns to the big screen in the edge-of-your-seat action thriller, BLOOD FATHER, based on the novel by Peter Craig (scriptwriter of The Town). When his teenage daughter is caught up in a drug deal gone wrong, she is forced to reach out to her estranged father, ex-con John Link (Gibson). Only he can protect her from the drug dealers who want her dead.
THE CARER ✪✪✪ (not reviewed) Opens September 1
Showing at Luna SX and Cinema Paradiso in Perth
Again haven't seen this one. Looks very arthouse, but might be interesting.
Film Blurb
Suffering from Parkinson’s disease and being cooped up in his country estate has left retired Shakespearean actor Sir Michael Gifford (Brian Cox) rather crabby and frustrated. Having ejected all previous would be carers, his daughter spearheads an intervention that sees Dorottya (Coco König) – a young Hungarian home help with acting aspirations of her own - tasked with the job of tending to this aging thespian grump. What blossoms between these two kindred spirits is a funny and heart-warming tale on the acceptance of one’s own mortality.
DON'T BREATHE (not reviewed) Opens September 1
The studios didn't preview this but I plan to see it next week and report back. It has garnered some great reviews and been called 'smart horror.' I like a good horror film, but none of my family will come with me so I'll be sitting on my own in the dark and trying to breathe.
Film Blurb
A trio of reckless thieves breaks into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they'll get away with the perfect heist. They're wrong.
SPECIAL EVENTS
BRIDGET JONES BABY
READING CINEMAS ADVANCE SCREENINGS
Location: Readings Belmont Details and Booking
Time: 7:00pm
Date: Wednesday September 7
Gold Glass $28 General Session $10
Film season opens Thursday September 8
Then her love life takes a turn and Bridget meets a dashing American named Jack (Dempsey), the suitor who is everything Mr. Darcy is not.
After breaking up with Mark Darcy (Firth), Bridget Jones's (Zellweger) "happily ever after" hasn't quite gone according to plan. Fortysomething and single again, she decides to focus on her job as top news producer and surround herself with old friends and new. For once, Bridget has everything completely under control. What could possibly go wrong?
READING CINEMAS ADVANCE SCREENINGS
PETE'S DRAGON
Location: Readings Belmont Details and Booking
Time: 9:30 am Film Starts at 10:30 am
Date: Wednesday September 7
Film season opens Thursday September 15
Join us for an advance Family Day screening, with lots of activities and giveaways!
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott.
EVENT CINEMAS CINEBUZZ SENIORS SCREENINGS
SULLY
Location: Event Cinemas Innaloo & Morley
Time: 10:00 am Film Starts at 10:30 am
Date: Wednesday September 14
Seniors Members Tickets $8.50*
Non-members pay full price FREE to join.
On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed the "Miracle on the Hudson" when Captain "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) glided his disabled plane onto the frigid waters of the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and his career
NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE
HAMLET
Date: Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th September
Time: 1pm
Location: Luna Leederville & Luna SX
Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, The Imitation Game) takes on the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Posh, Chimerica) and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, the original 2015 broadcast was experienced by over half a million people worldwide. As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.
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