This week brings you a cinematic feast. There’s something to tempt everyone’s taste buds: a hometown girl in a controversial US film, a documentary about sisters (of the religious kind) in small town New Zealand, a Meryl Streep – Tommy Lee Jones dramedy, a sexy Asian drama… or perhaps a blockbuster remake of an Arnold Schwarzenegger classic!
Films opening today:
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MARGARET.…..FILM OF THE WEEK
USA, 149 minutes, Auckland first (then the rest of the country later), Director: Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count On Me)
Local lass Anna Paquin stars in Kenneth Lonergan’s New York-based drama about a self–absorbed and rebellious girl trying to deal with guilt after a deadly traffic accident. This film was stuck in post-production hell for years but has finally seen the light of day (albeit not in its full version) this past year. Admit One loved this when we saw it as part of the World Cinema Showcase.
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HOW FAR IS HEAVEN……HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
New Zealand, 98 minutes, Auckland first (then the rest of the country later), Directors: Christopher Pryor (Land of the Long White Cloud), Miriam Smith (Feature Debut)
A slice–of–life documentary which spends a year with the Sisters of Compassion in the remote but picturesque town of Jerusalem, on the Whanganui River. The sisters struggle to see their own relevance in society – yet the town needs them more than they could ever know.
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TOTAL RECALL
USA/Canada, 118 minutes, Director: Len Wiseman (Underworld)
Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale star in the re-adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s classic short story. If you’re old like me, you’ll fondly remember the 80’s classic. Will this live up to that – or at least our memory of it?
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HOPE SPRINGS
USA, 100 minutes, Director: David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada)
Sex therapy for the older generation. Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play a couple trying to reignite their relationship after thirty years of marriage.
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STARRY, STARRY NIGHT
China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, 99 minutes, Director: Tom Lin (Winds of September)
A Chinese romantic drama about two young lovers who run away from home and into the wilderness. So an Asian Moonrise Kingdom then?
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LAN KWAI FONG 2
Hong Kong, 100 minutes, Dircetor: Wilson Chin (Lan Kwai Fong)
Didn’t know there was a Lan Kwai Fong 1, but this looks like a sexy thriller with multiple intersecting partners… oops, I mean parts.
http://youtu.be/VOa6lZMliOk
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VULGARIA
Hong Kong, 90 minutes, Director: Pang Ho-cheung (Love In The Buff)
Another sexy Asian piece, but this time an outrageous and politically incorrect comedy about a film producer forced into making a period skin flick by a notorious gangster. Ooh er, Missus.
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So which of these will you be seeing?
