Interstellar
With his $160m tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan “has delivered a cerebral and original blockbuster that … is the utter antithesis of Transformers-style franchise filmmaking”, its special effects making Gravity seem like “a chamber piece by comparison”. There are no signs of the McConaissance slowing down, with critical praise for Matthew Mconaughey’s star turn as a flight ace joining fellow explorers (including Anne Hathaway) on a mission to discover whether mankind can find a home on another planet. Boasting its own HALs in the two AI characters TARS and CASE, and taking inspiration from theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, Interstellar avoids pure sci-fi by weaving a narrative that is part family melodrama and part space opera. On general release 5 November.
Foxcatcher
Complete with prosthetic nose and ratty teeth, Steve Carell gives a “career-changing performance” in a biopic that earned Bennett Miller (Capote) the best director award at Cannes. With its study of a twisted mind, the psychological drama about an Olympic wrestler (Channing Tatum) and his disturbing coach (Carell) has been touted as a best picture frontrunner at the Academy Awards. BBC Culture’s Owen Gleiberman praised Foxcatcher as “a brilliant and darkly arresting true-life tale that fuses Olympic sport and the pathologies of wealth with murder”; rather than featuring courage and heroism, it “grips us with the spectacle of dreams gone disastrously wrong”. Released 14 November in India and the US and 20 November in Russia.
The Imitation Game
Following his Emmy-winning turn as Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch tries his hand as another hyper-intelligent problem solver in what might be the part he was born to play: according to Owen Gleiberman, “he may never have had a role that fits him with the emotionally tailored perfection of Alan Turing”. The period drama tells the story of the British mathematician who cracked the Germans' Enigma code during World War II, and reveals secrets on many levels; Turing hid his homosexuality before being prosecuted by the British government in 1952. Ticking all the right boxes for awards, “it serves up Oscar bait in code”. Released 14 November in Ireland, 16 November in Australia 16 Nov and 21 November in the US.
The Vatican Museum 3D
Claiming to be “very much in the spirit of openness and accessibility that has been the mark of the Papacy of Francis I”, this documentary shows one of the world’s greatest art collections as it’s never been seen before. Ultra HD 4K/3D cameras were allowed to film inside the museums and the Sistine Chapel for the first time, offering an immersive take on works by Caravaggio, Raphael, Giotto and Michelangelo. Expert commentary comes from the director of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci. Released 8 November in Australia, 18 November in Ireland and 27 November in Colombia. (Governorate of Vatican City)
The Babadook
Australia writer-director Jennifer Kent has been praised for combining “subtlety and psychological depth with some full-bodied shock tactics” in her debut feature, which offers up both supernatural suspense and real-life trauma. After Amelia (Essie Davis) loses her husband in a violent death, she struggles to deal with her son (Noah Wiseman); the discovery of a disturbing storybook at their house unleashes a series of events that, according to Variety, “deliver real, seat-grabbing jolts while also touching on more serious themes of loss, grief and other demons that cannot be so easily vanquished”. Released 20 November in Cambodia and 28 November in the US. (PR)
Escobar: Paradise Lost
Imagining the downfall of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar through the eyes of a Canadian surfer, the directorial debut from Italian actor Andrea di Stefano stars Benicio del Toro as the eponymous anti-hero. Variety described his character as “a cross between Don Corleone and Col. Kurtz”, praising the film for its central performance: “Appearing bearded, heavy and dishevelled, keeping his voice in the low, menacing register of someone who doesn’t have to speak loudly to be heard, Del Toro plays the part as a kind of gun-toting Lear.” Released 5 November in France, 14 November in Spain and 26 November in the US. (Mika Cotellon)
The Theory of Everything
The second of the month’s ‘geek biopics’, this drama follows the life of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne) as he falls in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones) – and then receives his diagnosis of motor neurone disease at just 21. Directed by James Marsh, who won an Academy Award for Man on Wire, the feature has been praised for Redmayne’s “inspired mimicry”, which is “acting out of the My Left Foot handbook”. Released 7 November in the US, 14 November in Cambodia and 15 November in Taiwan. (Liam Daniel / Focus Features)
Diplomacy
Renowned German director Volker Schlöndorff, who won an Oscar for The Tin Drum in 1980, here adapts a hit play about an epic game of cat and mouse. Adolf Hitler has ordered Paris be burnt to the ground as the German army retreats in August 1944; Andre Dussollier (Wild Grass) is a Swedish consul who reasons with a Nazi officer played by Niels Arestup (A Prophet) over the city’s fate. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s a “terrifically performed piece of filmed theatre … filled with twists, turns and underhanded schemes that show how history sometimes lies in the hands of a selected few”. Released 7 November in Spain, 15 November in the US and 21 November in Italy. (Berlinale / Jerome Prebois)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
After The Hunger Games: Catching Fire became the highest grossing film released in the US in 2013, the latest instalment is one of the most anticipated movies of 2014. Adapted from the third novel in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the film follows heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she fights to save Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore). The film was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last and director Francis Lawrence told Empire that he didn’t resort to digital trickery after the actor died during production. “He had two substantial scenes left and the rest were appearances in other scenes. We had no intention of trying to fake a performance, so we rewrote those scenes to give to other actors ... The rest we just didn't have him appear in those scenes.” On general release on 19 November. (Lionsgate)
Leviathan
Written and directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena), this Russian drama won the best screenplay award at Cannes, and shows a patriarch defending his house from a compulsory purchase. Set on a remote peninsula bordering Finland, it exposes the corruption at each level of government with dark satire and absurdist comedy. Despite its weighty subjects, the film remains accessible, and according to Variety, “the experience feels akin to that of binge-watching a season of a juicy HBO series as our attention shifts among the various players in this relatively expansive, well-rounded ensemble”. Released 7 November in the US, 13 November in Taiwan and 21 November in Poland. (PR)
HAVE A FUN-FILLED NOVEMBER!
No comments:
Post a Comment