SAVAGES
Fulgor:
Oct 25 to 31
Oliver
Stone, indulging his dark side, takes a look at the horrors of the Mexican drug
trade: Cartels versus individual producers with a shared girlfriend in the
middle, not to mention the FBI. ‘Savages is Oliver Stone doing what he should
have done a long time ago: making a tricky, amoral, down-and-dirty crime
thriller that’s blessedly free of any social, topical, or political relevance’
(Entertainment Weekly). ‘Savages is a daylight noir, a western, a stoner
buddy movie and a love story, which is to say that it is a bit of a mess. But
also a lot of fun, especially as its pulp elements rub up against some gritty
geopolitical and economic themes’ (New York Times). ‘Sadly, Savages
plays up to Stone’s worst tendencies: machismo, bombast and self-indulgence,
and the factor that could conceivably have made this movie tolerable-humour-is
off the menu’ (The Guardian).
SKYFALL
Fulgor:
Nov 1 to 7
Daniel
Craig is back as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in
the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M
is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007
must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
ON
THE ROAD
Astra2:
Oct 29, 30
Five
years in the making, Walter Salles’s project of bringing Jack Kerouac’s seminal
novel to the screen is finally realised. This semi-autobiographical story makes
for an iconic road movie, with the Beat generation and its preoccupations on
display. ‘Bold, affecting and inherently sad’ (Observer). ‘It’s
beautifully shot, handsomely mounted and well cast’ (Radio Times).
KILLING
THEM SOFTLY
Astra2:
Nov 5, 6
New
Zealander Andrew Dominik’s follow-up to his brilliant 2007 The Assassination of
Jesse James again stars Brad Pitt but in a crime thriller of a completely
different sort. In the New Orleans underworld, Jackie Cogan is the enforcer
investigating a heist. ‘The film is terribly smart in every respect, with
ne‘er-a-false note performances and superb craft work from top to bottom’ (Hollywood
Reporter). ‘This is an unrepentantly cynical take on the hope-and-change
promised to the US in 2008; this year’s election race makes it look even
bleaker, an icily confident black comedy of continued disillusion’ (The
Guardian). ‘Tough, stylish, violent and studded with stars-but like so many
of its American gangsters, Killing Them Softly doesn’t quite get the job done’
(Total Film).
ARGO
Fulgor:
Nov 8 to 13
Based
on real events, the dramatic thriller Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert
operation to rescue six Americans that unfolds behind the scenes of the Iran
hostage crisis, focusing on the little-known role that the CIA and Hollywood
played-information that was not declassified until many years after the event.
‘A superbly crafted and darkly funny real-life political thriller, with
pitch-perfect performances’ (USA Today). ‘The results are nothing less
than sensational’ (Wall Street Journal).
TOMMY
The
British Institute: Oct 31, 8pm
Roger
Daltry from The Who plays the blind, deaf and dumb pinball player who becomes
the leader of a cult in Russell’s 1970s psychedelic rock opera based on the
band’s concept album. ‘The Who’s ludicrous rock opera was in fact tailor-made
for the baroque, overblown images and simplistic symbolism of Russell’s style,
which only means that this is both the movie in which he is most faithful to
the ideas and tone of his material, and one of his very worst films’ (Time
Out). Oscar nomination for Ann-Margret for Best Actress.
LISZTOMANIA
The
British Institute: Nov
7, 8pm
‘Ken Russell does a Tommy on
the life of virtuoso pianist and composer Franz Liszt: essentially, Confessions
of a Rocky Horror Amadeus. Roger Daltrey, cheerily shagging his way through
19th-century high society as the titular tinkler, isn’t the only
similarity-it’s as flamboyant, outrageous and incoherent as you’d expect from a
film with Richard Wagner as a Nazi vampire, 20-foot rubber penises and Ringo
Starr as the Pope’ (Total Film). ‘Not only catastrophically wide of the
mark as a “sense experience”, but misogynistic, addled and grandiosely witless’
(Time Out). ‘A berserk exercise of demented genius’ (Roger Ebert).
