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CONTENTS Page 4 5-8
Editorial Me and Earl and the Dying Girl High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer.
9-12
Miss Julie Over the course of a midsummer night in 1890, an unsettled daughter of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy encourages her valet to seduce her.
13-16
Mistress America A lonely college freshman’s life is turned upside down by her impetuous adventurous soon-to-be stepsister.
17-20
Posters – Selling the Movie The art of a poster and the importance of its logline.
21-24
Irrational Man A tormented philosophy professor finds a will to live when he commits an existential act.
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Film Fest Follower Toronto MbM previews the scheduled programme of one of the world’s major film festivals.
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
PHOTO CREDITS: Fox Searchlight 1,5,7,8,13,15,16,32. 20TH Century Fox 17,18. Warner Bros.UK 2,21,23,24. Munro Film Services 9, 11, 12. Universal 19 Lionsgate 19 Park Circus 19 Tri-Star Pictures 20
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following for their invaluable help. Jane Smith at Munro Film Services Sasha Gibson at Munro Film Services Tom Green at Think Jam Ellie Graham at Think Jam
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EDITORIAL As we approach autumn the film world becomes quite hectic and a busy time for all film lovers and promises to be a halcyon days of films. The BFI London Film Festival announced its programme on th September 1st for the festival that will run from 7th -18 . October. Prior to this there will be the 23rd Raindance Film Festival – rd th 23 September – 4 October. It is run by an enthusiastic team of Raindancers led by its founder Elliott Grove, one of the most passionate people you are likely to meet in the film business. Info@raindance.co.uk So though we have had a wet summer it looks like being a very hot autumn for film aficionados in London and needless to say for readers of this magazine. This month’s cover spotlights our main feature review Me And Earl And The Dying Girl. The film opened its heart to filmgoers in January at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah and justifiably has been receiving rave reviews worldwide ever since. Other films reviewed are: Miss Julie, Irrational Man and Mistress America. Posters - Selling the Movie; is our industry feature taking a look at the film poster and the importance of loglines to sell the movie? Our regular feature Film Fest Follower scrutinises the exciting programme scheduled at one of the most respected film festivals in the world – Toronto. It is a festival renowned for obtaining the best films for its loyal patrons, and this year it offers another amazing programme. While writing this, the BFI London Film Festival have announced their programme for October. It is an impressive programme with stars already announced to attend the premieres and walk the red carpet: Carey Mulligan, Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Saoirse Ronan.
Cate Blanchett will receive the BFI Fellowhip during the festival. Once again please let us know your thoughts about the magazine by emailing me at:
brian@movies-by-mills.com
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Enjoy the read
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Brian Mills
Paul Ridler
Magazine Editor
Magazine Designer
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ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL * Spoiler Alert *
Directed by Alfonzo Gomez-Rejon Starring: Thomas Mann. Olivia Cooke. RC Cyler. Nick Offerman. Jon Bernhal. The film was launched at Sundance in Utah and not only received a standing ovation at its press screening but also went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Best U.S. Drama plus the Audience Award. Jesse Andrews, the author of the book, wrote the screenplay which totally captivated Alfonzo GomezRejon when he read it, that he knew that he would be the only one to direct it. He had worked as a production assistant and second-unit director for Nora Ephron, Martin Scorcese and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and had been looking to direct his first film, to express his own cinematic vision and his grief for his late father. 17 year-old Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann) is a self-loathing senior at Pittsburgh’s Schenley High School who fails to be able to fit in and in fact only has one real friend Earl(R J Cyler).
Then something happens to threaten Greg’s seclusion and fracture his isolated view of himself and others. His mother tells him that a fellow student and former childhood friend of his, Rachel Kushner (Olivia Cooke), has been diagnosed with cancer and she wants him to befriend her in her time of need. He finds it painfully difficult and embarrassing to approach Rachel and his clumsiness and the ability to say all the wrong things to her doesn’t help. However, he manages to persuade her by commenting on her pillow collection and making her laugh, to meet-up on a regular basis and he introduces her to Earl and tells her of the films that they make together, which are parodies of classic films: The Seven Seals, Senior Citizen Kane, Wages for Beer, A Sockwork Orange, Raging Bullshit, Grump Cul-Sacs, Anatomy of a Berger. Rachel loves the films and they raise her spirits. The chosen films were in fact favourites of the director’s and he had so many that he had to leave many out.
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While trying to comfort Rachel, she recognizes Greg’s insecurity and lack of confidence and feeling happier in his company with the aid of his spoof films, a strong bond forms between them. As Rachel’s condition worsens and she undergoes chemotherapy, it becomes harder for Greg to see her and for her to receive him but it appears to be a learning lesson for them both, though Greg begins to be spending less time at school resulting in him being rejected by the college he thought he would attend. Madison (Katharine C Hughes), Greg’s high-school crush persuades Greg and Earl to make a film for Rachel. After realizing that the chemotherapy is doing more harm than good, Rachel opts to discontinue her treatment. Greg and Earl have a heated argument after Earl tells Rachel they are making a film for her, which Greg was wanting to be a surprise. Later, Madison lets Greg know that Rachel has been moved into a hospice as she begins to succumb to the disease. Madison takes pity on Greg and invites him to the prom. However, after dressing up in a tuxedo, he decides not to go with Madison but instead goes to the hospital where Rachel is receiving hospice care. He brings in his iPhone and projector and screens the film on the front wall of her room, lying beside her as they did when they watched his other films. Rachel is moved to tears by the movie. However, while viewing the film, she falls into a coma. Much later, Greg and Earl make-up. Greg sneaks into Rachel’s room, where he finds a card to him from her explaining that she wrote a letter to the college Greg applied to in order to let them know that he missed school for her sake. He also finds several intricate carvings with her books depicting scenes of her with Greg and Earl, proving that she cared for him. Greg leaves with one of the books and his favourite of Rachel’s pillows. Later still, Greg writes his story of his time with Rachel (which is the basis for the film’s narrative) and mails it to the college along with the film he made for her. This is a wonderful film that sprouts buds on many a wallflower’s heart. Weepies were once the mainstay of films of the forties and it is nice to see them return again. Those who liked The Fault in Our Stars will warm this too. NB: The film was shot over a four week period. The Criterion Collection lent its library of classic films for use in the book and DVD store scene in the film.
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R.J. Cyler, Nick Offerman, Thomas Mann in Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
Olivia Cooke, Thomas Mann, R.J. Cyler in Me And Earl And The Dying Girl.
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R.J. Cyler and Thomas Mann in
Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
Thomas Mann and Olivia Cooke in Me And Earl And The Dying Girl 8
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MISS JULIE Directed by Liv Ullmann Starring: Jessica Chastain. Colin Farrell. Samantha Morton. * Spoiler Alert * Come, dance with me again.
– Miss Julie.
I am at your service.
– John.
Don’t be afraid, Kathleen. I will not run away with your fiancé.Julie
Miss
The upstairs and downstairs class warfare screen adaptation of August Strindberg’s play by Liv Ullmann. The setting has been changed from Sweden to Ireland. The characters have been paired down from twentynine in Alf Sjoberg’s original film, to *four. At a running time of 130 minutes and a sombre story involving the three characters, it is a long slog of imminent physical numbness, but alleviated by outstanding acting which had me forgetting any discomfort. Midsummer’s Eve, when everyone regardless of class mingle and dance and enjoy the revelry. Soon the baron will return, meanwhile Miss Julie (Jessica Chastain), John (Colin Farrell) her father’s valet; and Kathleen (Samantha Morton) chomp around the country estate. Beyond the locked gates, you can hear the exuberance of the villages (in Sjoberg’s version, you get to see them). Liv Ullmann concentrates the story on the actors, and the result is that we have a film that is one of the finest examples of outstanding acting. Liv Ullmann, herself one of the great actresses who worked under the direction of Ingmar Bergman, directs Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton in their best ever roles. Each is challenged by delivering momentous monologues in one shot, with barely a cutaway to the listener. There are no cinematic tricks, what you are seeing is face-on; guaranteed to be used in acting classes and to raise the standard of what can be achieved.
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Over the course of the Midsummer Eve, Miss Julie and John dance, drink, charm, tease and manipulate each other. He is course, but learned and a travelled man, as a valet to Miss Julie’s father. Deep down John resents authority and finds his servile occupation demeaning yet unavoidable because he is working class and was born to serve the wealthy. Only when the master returns do we see John’s respect when he instantly answers his master’s bell. John’s response to Miss Julie’s command to kiss her boots is to do it without hesitation. Likewise to dance with her. When she begins to seduce him, he lustfully shuts the bedroom door behind him and their intimacy leads to them making plans of a future together. Once they have made love, he despises her. He has brought her down to his level. There is little thought of Kathleen, his fiancée, listening behind a closed door and aghast at John’s behaviour. Miss Julie’s presence in the kitchen forewarns of her loss of status. She was raised with massive financial advantages, but also raised in chaos. Madness is in her family line. Her mother taught her to hate men. That is the crux of Miss Julie’s problem, and that is the destabilizing effect that John, the good-looking valet, has on her. When she ‘falls’ for him, she means it. But the second they sleep together, John turns on her. She’s a whore to him now. After John and Miss Julie sleep together, she sits in his bed, stiff, traumatized, wiping the blood from between her legs. Kathleen uses as a possible reason why Miss Julie’s behaviour has been so “queer” in the couple of days prior because of her period. The scenes of Miss Julie alone in her red bedroom with her caged finch, or staggering drunk up the main staircase of the manor, a ruined woman, running from the madness of what she has done are enhanced by the mournful score of Schubert and Bach. After Miss Julie and John have shed their armour, they have no illusions, and life becomes momentarily unbearable until they have collected themselves. Kathleen is the long-suffering cook of the house and John’s churchgoing fiancée, whom he treats with lordly condescension. She is the only one who knows her place and doesn’t question it. Her foundation is her religious belief. She tells John that he must go to church with her and ask for God’s forgiveness, but he refuses. Miss Julie is not an easy view but it is a film to be seen and savoured and one that no doubt Strindberg would be proud. As for Liv Ullman, she has brought together a remarkable cast and enriched their careers with these unforgettable roles. *Nora McMenamy plays Young Miss Julie.
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Jessica Chastain In Miss Julie
Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell in Miss Julie
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Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain in Miss Julie
Samantha Morton in Miss Julie 12
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MISTRESS AMERICA Directed by Noah Baumbach Starring: Greta Gerwig. Lola Kirke. Heather Lind. Michael Chernus. You’re funny cos you don’t know you’re funny – Dylan. I know I’m funny. There is nothing I don’t know about myself, that’s why I can’t do therapy. – Brooke. Not quite justifying the hype which was attached to Baumbach and Gerwig’s previous collaboration Frances Ha, nevertheless their latest venture into the female midlife crisis narrative provides plenty of opportunity for some excellent character development and witty exchanges. Tracy (Lola Kirke) is in her first year of college in New York. She is lonely, unhappy, depressed about having failed to get her short stories into the college creative-writing magazine. Her divorced mother, who is getting remarried, tells Tracy to get in touch with her fiancé’s daughter, Brooke, who will be her new stepsister. She rings her and an excited Brooke (Great Gerwig) asks her to meet her in Times Square. They immediately like each other, Tracy admiring Brooke’s sophistication, her quirkiness and independence. Brooke is a 30 year-old self-styled interior decorator with amazing ideas but rarely able to execute any of them. Her latest brainwave is that she wants to open a restaurant. She welcomes the new friendship and sees Tracy as a younger version of herself. Tracy wants a short cut to success and senses that Brooke’s life plans are in jeopardy and starts writing a new story called “Mistress America” after a TV show which Brooke once had a great idea about, but never materialised. Furthermore, Tracy now has someone to write a story about and she begins to make notes about Brooke, which later when Brooke realises what she is doing, angrily tells her that she is stealing her life. Gradually Brooke’s plans begin to unravel, and a medium advises her to confront a long-time enemy. So she and www.moviesbymills.com
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Tracy drive to Connecticut to visit Mamie-Claire (Heather Lind), the woman who not only married Brooke’s old boyfriend but also stole her best T-shirt concept. The stage is set in this sequence at Mamie-Claire’s modernist mansion. They are wildly rich and successful and Brooke is invited to pitch her idea of a restaurant to Dylan (Michael Cernus), Mamie-Claire, Tracy and a few college acquaintances. Brooke is hesitant in declaring her dream but she does with Tracy’s help when she begins to stumble over her idea. The impromptu pitch of a restaurant that would also be a hairdressers wins over Dylan and he is prepared to give her financial backing. The true characteristics of Brooke and Tracy are soon revealed. For Brooke it happens when she is confronted in a bar by an irate woman who remembers how she ruined her life when she was younger by bullying her because she was told she was bitter. Now it is Brooke who is bitter. Both Brooke and Tracy find it difficult to define themselves. They are intensely aware of career and success, the need to rise up. The trial of having to make it, to be publicly successful, intensified in an age where social media offers everyone the pleasures and burdens of celebrity. It is Lola Kirke who really stamps her mark She comes from a very creative family and I that she will soon be winning awards and be conversation piece amongst film critics and for years to come.
on the film. am convinced a cinemagoers
In her fuzzy jumper and beret, observing Brooke, Lola as Tracy is magnetically impressive. Her character at the beginning of the story is worshipping Brooke but soon the roles are reversed, and Brooke is learning from her. She demands your attention and won’t let go. The camera loves her. The theme of nothingness runs through the storyline like a seaside name embedded in a stick of rock – and for anyone, but particularly writers, will be able to relate to the times when ideas that they have had for stories have remained ideas and have never been written. The ‘nothingness’ theme is a universal one, and Greta Gerwig’s Frances and Brooke remind us of that. I kept thinking of all the songs, shows, films, plays, that would never have been created if they had just stayed dormant. So as a reminder to myself with all the titles I have waiting for stories to be hung on them like clothes on a peg, and for all those who see this film and feel an elbow poking them to act on their dreams – do it and don’t deny the world your creative talent. 14
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Greta Gerwig andf Lola Kirke in Mistress America
Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke in Mistress America
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Dean Wareham, Lola Kirke and Greta Gerwig in Mistress America.
Matthew Shear and Lola Kirke in Mistress America 16
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100 years ago feature-length films were emerging as a storytelling medium in their own right, two decades after the invention of the cinematograph machine. In December 1915 the fledgling yet ambitious enterprises dedicated to supplying and promoting filmed entertainment founded the UK trade association known today as the Film Distributors Association – the FDA. Last month the FDA presented an exhibition of film posters and photographs including a custom-built model of a cinema made from LEGO brick, including an auditorium of a cinema and the exterior with patrons going into the cinema. The majority of the posters and photographs were from 2015 cinema releases and it is the posters that MbM wants to concentrate on. A film poster is central to the film’s identity, it must immediately inform you what the film is about and its genre: comedy, thriller, drama, musical, western, and horror. It is inviting you to see the movie. The graphic designer’s challenge is to find a clear distinguishing concept that can encapsulate the feeling, atmosphere and promise of the film. Illustrations or paintings were commonplace in film poster artworks up to the 1980s. Now, in our digital media age, posters are often created using sophisticated software such as illustrator or Photoshop. One of greatest illustrators of poster artwork was Saul Bass, who designed the posters for The Seven Year Itch, Bonjour Tristesse, The Big Country, Vertigo, Anatomy of a Murder, North by Northwest and many others. The very first film poster appeared in Paris in 1890 for the short film comedy made by Louis Lumiere – L’ Arroseur Arrose. There are two sizes for posters: quads which are used in the UK and one -sheets in the US. The majority of the posters used in MbM are onesheets.
Besides the illustrations on a poster the most important point is the logline: it sells the movie. It can be short or long but must contain the theme of the film without revealing too much. It will invariably contain the protagonist, antagonist, and the goal, which drives the story.
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Here are some examples of excellent loglines: Black Mass – The unholy alliance between the FBI and Whitey Bulger, one of the most notorious gangsters in US history. Brooklyn – Two Countries, Two Loves, One Heart. Everest – Never Let Go Gemma Bovary – Can Life Really Imitate Art? Legend – The Notorious True Story of The Kray Twins. The Martian -
Bring Me Home
Me And Earl And The Dying Girl – A Little Friendship Never Killed
Anyone Mistress America – From Strangers To Sisters Rebel Without A Cause – the bad boy from a good family Sicario – The Border Is Just Another Line To Cross Spectre – 007 Suffragette – Mothers. Daughters. Rebels. Sweet Smell of Success – Lie For it…Cheat For it…Drink To it….The
Sweet, Sweet Smell Of Success Trainwreck – We All Know One The Walk – Every Dream Begins With A Single Step Some posters like The Misfits use the titles to tell the theme of the movie. The words are broken up and we see the main characters and are told that they are the misfits. If you are making a movie, it is so important to use loglines to sell it. Remember too, that there are more than one poster issued for a film and each may have a different logline. And also note that loglines are used on DVDs to sell to that market too. Have fun checking them out. Oh, yes…look at the posters in this and back issues of MbM to familiarize yourself with them. If you don’t see a logline, look carefully at the way the graphic artist has positioned the image and the title of the movie, like Woody Allen’s Irrational Man on page 2 of this issue. The latest James Bond movie SPECTRE only needs to use 007 as its logline…it says it all.
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IRRATIONAL MAN * Spoiler Alert *
Directed by Woody Allen Starring: Joachin Phoenix. Emma Stone. Parker Posey. Jamie Blackley. I can’t write. I can’t breathe. I couldn’t remember the reason for living, and when I did, it wasn’t convincing. - Abe Lucas The latest offering from Woody Allen celebrates his 50th year in the film business starting with the forgettable What’s up Tiger Lily? In 1966. Many of Woody’s protagonists are thinly disguised neurotic clones of himself but in Irrational Man, the character of Abe, played by Joachin Phoenix, drills through any façade into the deep philosophy that lies behind his comedy. Abe Lucas is a philosophy professor arriving to teach at a small town college. Suddenly he gets involved with two women: Rita Richards (Parker Posey), a lonely professor who wants him to rescue her from an unhappy marriage; and Jill Pollard (Emma Stone), his best student, who becomes his closest friend. While Jill loves her boyfriend Roy (Jamie Blackley), she finds Abe’s tortured, artistic personality and exotic past irresistible. Even as he displays signs of mental imbalance, Jill’s fascination with him only grows. Still, she tries to make their relationship a romantic one, he rebuffs her. Things change dramatically and unexpectedly when Abe and Jill overhear a stranger’s conversation at a diner, on how angry she was at a judge’s decision to side with her ex-husband and allow him custody of their children. Suddenly Abe finds his reason for living in making sure that someone dies to help this woman. It is to be a meaningful act of justice against the judge who wronged this woman. Abe www.moviesbymills.com
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begins to track the judges’ moves for the purpose of him to commit an existentialist act: the perfect murder. In Woody Allen’s book “Getting Even” we see Woody’s influences in the great philosophers and he unleashes these in Abe’s lectures to his students in Irrational Man, but the one major influence here is Kierkegaard. The great philosopher’s influence on Woody Allen’s films and the teachings of existentialism as never been more evident than in the creation of Woody’s character Abe Lucas, though of course it is a theme that runs through all of his films where the protagonist has become disorientated and confused in the face of an apparently meaningless world. It also reveals why Woody keeps working. To quote him: *“All I do is work, and my philosophy has always been that if I keep working, just focus on my work, everything else will fall into place. It’s irrelevant whether I make a lot of money or don’t, or whether the films are successful or not. All that is total nonsense and superfluous and superficial. If you just look at the work and try and keep working and striving and setting ambitious goals for yourself, the rest is unimportant. You find that, if you do just that, everything else falls into place.”
Of course there are other influences both in philosophers and in filmmakers: Kant, Sarte, Dostoyevsky in the former, and Bergman and Fellini, the latter. The chemistry between Joachin Phoenix and Emma Stone is perfect; they naturally complement each other by seemingly bringing out the best of performances. Casting is an integral part of Woody’s films and if a person is not right then they must go. Making his latest untitled film, Bruce Willis left the shoot as apparently being unsuitable for the part, though other claims was that the filming conflicted with other commitments. Irrational Man will invariably be compared to Crimes and Misdemeanours, where a man is advised by his mobster brother to kill his ex-mistress for planning to expose his financial and extramarital affairs to bring him down from being a pillar of society; and Manhattan Murder Mystery, where a bored housewife becomes convinced that her next-door neighbour has committed murder. At a recent film festival conference, Woody was asked if he had ever considered murdering someone. He replied “As we speak”. *Woody Allen on Woody Allen edited by Stig Bjorkman, page 192. Published by Faber and Faber.
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Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man
Joaquin Phoenix and Parker Posey in Irrational Man
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Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man
Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man 24
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FILMFEST FOLLOWER TORONTO 10th – 20th September
MbM RECOMMENDS OPENING NIGHT FILM DEMOLITION Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal. Naomi Watts. Chris Cooper. Davis, a successful investment banker, struggles after losing his wife in a tragic car crash. Despite pressure from his father-in-law to pull it together, Davis continues to unravel. What starts as a complaint letter to a vending machine company turns into a series of letters revealing startling personal confessions.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM MR RIGHT Directed by Paco Cabezas Starring: Sam Rockwell. Anna Kendrick. Tim Roth. A girl falls for the “perfect” guy, who happens to have a very fatal flaw: he’s a hitman on the run from the crime cartels who employ him. Martha McKay has been unlucky in love but now it seems things could be beginning to change after bumping into Mr Right, and she is after all quite quirky. She is proud of her quick reflexes but is quite shocked when one night Mr Right throws a knife at her to test them. So begins a weird courtship.
GALAS THE ASSASSIN Directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou Starring: Qi Shu Set during the mighty Tang Dynasty period in China history. Nie Yinniag returns to family after several years in exile. Now she will have to choose between sacrificing the man she loves, or break definitely with the “Order of the Assassins”.
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BEING CHARLIE Directed by Rob Reiner Starring: Nick Robinson. Common. Cory Elves. Charlie is a troublesome 18-year-old who treatment clinic. But when he returns home an intervention by his parents and forced There, he meets a beautiful girl, Eva, and elusive love and divided
breaks out of youth drug to Los Angeles, he’s given to go to an adult rehab. is forced to battle drugs, parents.
BLACK MASS Directed by Jim Sheridan Starring: Johnny Depp. Benedict Cumberbatch. The story of the Boston mobster and FBI informant Whitey Bulger. It is based on a book written by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. Whitey Bulger rose to prominence in Boston as a feared enforcer and built the Winter Hill Gang into an enterprise that did everything from selling drugs to procuring guns for the Irish Republican Army. His rise was helped by John Connolly, a childhood pal who became an FBI agent. Bulger disappeared over 14 years ago, creating a major law enforcement scandal. This is a story of a corrupt system and about an angry guy who became the second most wanted man after Bin Ladan.
BORN TO BE BLUE
Directed by Robert Budreau Starring: Ethan Hawke. Carmen Ejogo. A re-imagining of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker’s life in the 60s. When Chet stars in a film about himself, a romance heats up with his co-star, the enigmatic Jane. Production is shelved when his past comes back to haunt him and it appears he may never play music again, but Jane challenges him to mount a musical comeback against all odds.
BROOKLYN
Directed by John Crawley Starring: Saoirse Ronan. Domhnall Gleeson. Emory Cohen. Fiona Glascott. 1950s and Eilis Lacey is moving to America, thanks to her sister. She leaves her sister, mother, and the small shop that she hates working at to go to Brooklyn, where a job and home has been set up for her. At the beginning she feels isolated and alone in her new home. However her feelings soon change when she meets Tony who’s basically gorgeous and has no faults to speak of. Tony soon falls for Eilis, and even his Italian parents are smitten with her sweetness. Soon tragedy strikes and she must return to Ireland. Later she will have to choose between two homes and two men.
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COLONIA Directed by Florian Gallenberger Starring: Emma Watson. Daniel Bruhl. Michael Nyqvist. Lena and Daniel, a young couple become entangled in the Chilean military coup of 1973. Daniel is abducted by Pinochet’s secret police and Lena tracks him to a sealed off area in the South of the country, called Colonia Dignidad. The Colonia presents itself as a charitable mission run by a lay preacher Paul Schafer but, in fact, is a place nobody ever escaped from. Lena decides to join the cult in order to find Daniel. The film is based on true events.
THE DAUGHTER Directed by Simon Stone Starring: Geoffrey Rush. Anna Torv. Sam Neill. Set in the last days of a dying logging town, Christian returns to his family home for his father’s wedding. Reconnecting with his childhood friend Oliver and Oliver’s family, wife Charlotte and daughter Hedvig, he unearths a long-buried secret. As he tries to right the wrongs of the past, his actions threaten to shatter the lives of those he left behind years before.
ENDORPHINE Directed by Andre Turpin Starring: Sophie Nelise. Mylene Mackay. Lise Roy. Twelve-year-old Simone feels painfully disconnected after witnessing the brutal death of her mother. Simone is a solitary multi-media artist in her twenties, struggling to control her panic attacks and keep her day job in an underground parking lot. Simone, a sixty year-old physicist, is giving a conference on the nature of time. The three Simones’ lives are intertwined in a labyrinthine meta-world where timeframes overlap, characters multiply and storylines repeat and expand.
EVERY THING WILL BE FINE Directed by Wim Wenders Starring: James Franco. Rachel McAdams. Charlotte Gainsbourg. While driving aimlessly after a quarrel with his girlfriend, a writer accidentally runs over and kills a child. The accident and its aftermath deeply traumatizes him over the next twelve years. He struggles to make sense of what happened and continues on with his life, but when he looks in the mirror, he sees a murderer.
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FAMILIES Directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau Starring: Mathieu Amalric. Marine Vach. Gilles Lellouche. Jerome visits Paris on vacation from Shanghai to see his family home, which is now at the centre of a local conflict, unbeknownst to him. Jerome’s trip will forever change his life, thanks to the madcap family entanglement that ensues.
THE FAMILY FANG Directed by Jason Bateman Starring: Jason Bateman. Nicole Kidman. Christopher Walken. A brother and sister return to the family home in search of their world famous parents who have disappeared.
FORSAKEN Directed by Jon Cassar Starring: Demi Moore. Keifer Sutherland. Donald Sutherland. Brian Cox. John Henry returns to his hometown in hopes of repairing his relationship with his estranged father, but a local gang is terrorising the town. John is the only one who could stop them. However he has abandoned both his gun and reputation as a fearless quick-draw killer.
HIGH-RISE Directed by Ben Wheatley Starring Tom Hiddleson. Jeremy Irons. Sienna Miller. The unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties, degenerate into marauding attacks ‘enemy’ floors and the once luxurious amenities become an arena for technological mayhem.
HITCHCOCK/TRAUFFAUT Directed by Kent Jones Featuring: Wes Anderson. Olivier Assayas. Peter Bogdanovich. David Fincher. James Gray. Alfred Hitchcock. Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Richard Linklater. Martin Scorcese. Francois Trauffaut. Filmmakers discuss how Francois Trauffaut’s book “Cinema According to Hitchcock” influenced their work.
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I SAW THE LIGHT Directed by Mark Abraham Starring: Tom Hiddleston. Elizabeth Olsen. David Krumholtz. A biography of Hank Williams.
LEN AND COMPANY Directed by Tim Godsall Starring: Rhys Ifans. Juno Temple. Jack Kilmer. A successful music producer quits the industry and exiles himself in upstate New York, but the solution he seeks is shattered when his estranged son and the Pop Star he created come looking for answers.
THE LOBSTER Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos Starring: Lea Seydoux. Rachel Weisz. Colin Farrell. In a dystopian near future, where single people, according to The Laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.
LOOKING FOR GRACE Directed by Sue Brooks Starring: Richard Roxburgh. Radha Mitchell. Odessa Young. Grace, 16, runs away from home. Her parents, Dan and Denise, head off on the road across the Western Australian Wheatbelt with a retired detective, Norris, to try and get her back. But life unravels faster than they can put it back together.
LOUDER THAN BOMBS Directed by Joachim Trier Starring: Jesse Eisenberg. Rachel Brosnahan. Amy Ryan. An upcoming exhibition celebrating photographer Isabella Reed, 3 years after her untimely death, brings her eldest son, Jonah, back to the family house – forcing him to spend more time with his father Gene and withdrawn younger brother Conrad than he has in years. The family confronts their different feelings and memories of their deceased wife and mother.
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MAGGIE’S PLAN Directed by Rebecca Miller Starring: Greta Gerwig. Ethan Hawke. Julianne Moore. Maggie’s plan to have a baby on her own is derailed when she falls in love with John, a married man, destroying his volatile marriage. But one daughter and 7 years later, Maggie is out of love and in a quandary. What do you do when you suspect your man and his ex-wife are actually perfect for each other?
THE MARTIAN Directed by Ridley Scott Starring Matt Damon. Jessica Chastain. Kristen Wiig. Kate Mara. During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But survived and finds himself stranded alone on the hostile only meagre supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity and signal to Earth that he is still alive.
presumed dead Watney has planet. With find a way to
MISS YOU ALREADY Directed by Catherine Hardwicke Starring: Drew Barrymore. Toni Collette. Dominic Cooper. The friendship between two life-long girlfriends is put to the test when one starts a family and the other falls ill.
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS Directed by David Gordon Green Starring: Sandra Bullock. Billy Bob Thornton. Zoe Kazan. A feature film based on the documentary ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’, which focuses on the use of American political campaign strategies in South America.
THE PROGRAM Directed by Stephen Frears Starring: Ben Foster. Lee Pace. Chris O’Dowd. Dustin Hoffman. An Irish sports journalist becomes convinced that Lance Armstrong’s performances during the Tour de France victories are fuelled by banned substances. With this conviction, he starts hunting for evidence that will expose Armstrong. 30
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SICARIO Directed by Denis Villeneuve Starring: Emily Blunt. Josh Brolin. Benicio Del Toro. An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by an elected government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs by the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
SPOTLIGHT Directed by Tom McCarthy Starring: Michael Keaton. Rachel McAdams. Live Schreiber. Mark Ruffalo. The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
TRUMBO Directed by Jay Roach Starring: Bryan Cranston. Elle Fanning. Diane Lane. John Goodman. The successful career of Hollywood screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, comes to an end when he is blacklisted in the 1940s for being a Communist.
TRUTH Directed by James Vanderbilt Starring: Robert Redford. Cate Blanchett. A behind-the-scenes newsroom drama detailing the 2004 CBS 60 Minutes investigation into George W. Bush military service in the Texas Air National Guard.
UN PLUS UNE Directed by Claude Lelouch. Starring: Jean Dujardin. Christopher Lambert. Elsa Zylberstein. Jean Dujardin plays a charming successful film composer who travels to India to work on a score for a Bollywood retelling of “Romeo & Juliet”. There he meets Zylberstein’s character, who isn’t like him at all, but whom he finds irresistible.
YOUTH Directed by Paolo Sorrentino Starring: Michael Caine. Harvey Keitel. Rachel Weisz. Paul Dano. Fred and Mike, two old friends, are on vacation in the Swiss Alps. Fred, a composer, retired. Mick, a film director, still working. Fred has no intention of resuming his career again, but someone wants at all costs to hear him conduct again.
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