For
showtimes, see the events listing.
Odeon
Piazza Strozzi, 2
tel. +39 055 295051
THE MUPPETS
February 16
Only one Oscar nomination (for music),
but nothing should detract from this delightful Muppet reunion. The plot may
seem superfluous but suffice to say that a greedy oil company threatens the
future of the Muppet Theatre and fans do their utmost to reassemble the
characters, who have gone their separate ways, to save it. Nostalgia and
sweetness and, of course, laughter all the way. ‘An unexpected treat. Bright
and perky, cheeky but never mean-spirited'(Variety). ‘It’s hard not
to be both heartened and a little wistful about the fact that The Muppets is
probably as good a Muppet project as it’s possible to make without Jim Henson'(NPR). ‘Terrified of
alienating those who were raised on the originals, The Muppets panders to them
instead, constantly blasting or restaging Top 40 hits from the past three-plus
decades, continuing the cheap strategy that worked well on YouTube two years
ago with the Muppets’ cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody”‘(Village Voice).
THE DESCENDANTS
February 17, 18, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29
Alexander Payne’s Hawaii-set
follow-up to Sideways has George Clooney as an indifferent husband and father
forced by an accident involving his wife to seek reconciliation with his
daughters. ‘A pitch-perfect movie that threads a microscopically tiny needle
between high comedy and devastating drama'(Washington Post). ‘Another
beautifully chiseled piece of filmmaking-sharp, funny, generous, and moving'(Entertainment Weekly). ‘It left me
cold. The pathos is as unearned as the protagonist’s privilege'(Village Voice). ‘It’s such a
disappointment that The Descendants isn’t a better movie than it is. In this
soap opera disguised as a comedy, Payne, who was always a master at balancing
sharp satire with an essential humanism, has traded his tart lemon center for a
squishy marshmallow one'(Slate).
A FEW BEST MEN
February 20, 21
Australian-British comedy with Brit
David getting married to Aussie Mia in the outback, accompanied by his three
best mates from London. Shenanigans along the way involving sheep and
drug-dealers in the Blue Mountains. ‘This is a corker of a film with a
feel-good guarantee'(Louise Keller). ‘The kind of bottom-feeding yuckfest where
a character’s slip in dog poo within the first minutes sets the tenor for the
next 90 or so'(Variety).
THE END OF THE LINE
February 21
Documentary filmmaker Rupert Murray
examines the devastating effect that overfishing has had on the world’s fish
populations and argues that drastic action must be taken to reverse these
trends. ‘An apocalyptic documentary that is as beautiful as it is damning'(Los Angeles Times). ‘A free-form
splash of jaw-dropping graphs, impressively accredited talking heads, and
sumptuously shot portraits of natural beauty and decay, overdramatically scored
to symphonic and other intense musical attacks'(Village Voice).
WAR HORSE
February 23
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of
Michael Morpurgo’s novel comes to us via the hugely successful stage show in
which the horses were life-size marionettes. The story is of what amounts to a
love affair between a boy turned soldier and his horse against the background
of World War I. ‘Boldly emotional, nakedly heartfelt, War Horse will leave only
the stoniest hearts untouched'(Time). ‘You may find
yourself resisting this sentimental pageant of early-20th-century rural English
life, replete with verdant fields, muddy tweeds and damp turnips, but my strong
advice is to surrender'(New York Times). ‘This beautifully composed picture
brings a robust physicality to tried-and-true source material, but falls short
of the sustained narrative involvement and emotional drive of its resolutely
old-fashioned storytelling demands'(Variety). ‘War Horse is a bland, bizarrely
unimaginative piece of work'(New Yorker).
THE ARTIST
February 27, 28
This story of the arrival of sound in
Hollywood cinema in the 1920s and 1930s, a black-and-white (mostly) silent
movie that has captured audiences around the world, has already notched up
awards and is likely to do so at this year’s Oscars. ‘This is not a work of
film history but rather a generous, touching and slightly daffy expression of
unbridled movie love'(New
York Times). ‘Here is one of the most entertaining films in many a moon, a film
that charms because of its story, its performances and because of the sly way
it plays with being silent and black and white'(Roger Ebert). ‘Silence makes
the film interesting by enticing us to concentrate in ways we’re not used to,
while artistry carries the day. The Artist may have started as a daring stunt,
but it elevates itself to an endearing-and probably enduring-delight'(Wall Street Journal).
PROJECT NIM
February 28
The story of Nim, a chimpanzee who
was at the centre of an experiment in the 1970s aiming to prove that if raised
as a human, an ape could learn to communicate with language. ‘Gripping,
heart-wrenching, powerful and a sad indictment of scientific practice, which
shows that ‘human’ and ‘humane’ are all-too-often mutually exclusive'(Empire). ‘There is no
doubt that Nim was exploited, and also no doubt that he was loved. Mr. Marsh,
by allowing those closest to Nim plenty of room to explain themselves, examines
the moral complexity of this story without didacticism. He allows the viewer,
alternately appalled, touched and fascinated, to be snagged on some of its
ethical thorns'(New
York Times).
The British
Institute
Lungarno
Guicciardini 9
tel.
055/267781
Special
Event
THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP
February 22, 8pm
‘Fan the sinking flame of hilarity
with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.’ An all-star ensemble cast
attempts to bring Dickens’s colourful, tragi-comic characters to life, but this
necessarily truncated version of the novel perhaps falls short of expectations.
Sophie Vavasseur’s Little Nell and Toby Jones’s Quilp are fine characterisations
but the cliffhanging serial structure of the novel that had readers frantic for
narrative continuity is inevitably lacking in this version. And what about the
changed ending?
SCROOGE
February 29, 8pm
‘Bah!’ said Scrooge. ‘Humbug!’
‘[Alistair Sim’s] characterisation of Charles Dickens’ notorious curmudgeon
Ebenezer Scrooge is… generally regarded as definitive… [Titled A Christmas
Carol in the United States] in Britain it was named after the lead character.
And rightly so, because despite the stellar cast and a middle section where he
is temporarily usurped by George Cole playing his younger self, this is Sim’s
film through and through. Clearly relishing the chance to play Scrooge as both
villain and reformed hero, he takes an almost indecent delight in mocking the
trappings of Christmas at every opportunity…'(BFI). ‘What we have in this
rendition of Dickens’ sometimes misunderstood “Carol” is an accurate
comprehension of the agony of a shabby soul. And this is presented not only in
the tortured aspects of Mr. Sim but in the phantasmagoric creation of a somber
and chilly atmosphere’ (New York Times).
