Another veteran Aussie director, Bruce Beresford is back with a weepie. This time it is about a woman dying of cancer (elegant Natasha McElhone)
, whose benefactor arranges for Church (Eddie Murphy, correct) to come and cook for her and her young daughter. The daughter is at first resistant, then eventually accepts him.
Mother dies, daughter goes off to uni, gets pregnant and goes back “home” to where Church continues ensconced. Daughter has a girl and the cycle more or less begins again.
Britt Robertson
plays the daughter as a young woman. As you would expect from Beresford, the production is professional. The trouble is the story is clichéd and twee, we’ve seen it all before in its attempt to pull our heartstrings and cement old stereotypes about service, race, single mothers, you name it. Worth it to see Murphy 
back on screen but please make a comedy next time!
★★
The victim is a sewers worker who has tenuous connections with the accused but a whole case is trumped up to keep him in custody. This in turn is an excuse to look at the highly inefficient Indian justice system: the caprices of the judges,
the application of outdated laws, the police who lose or lack any evidence,
the prosecutors laying charges and failing to show the connections, the treatment of people according to their caste, bought witnesses, disappeared witnesses, the long delays between hearings and the absurd bail rules. Chaitanya Tamhane gives it both barrels but in a charming almost absurdist way. He also gives us a look into the private lives of the protagonists. The prosecutor (Geetanjali Kulkarni) is a conservative mother who is basically a slave at home when not in court. 
Defence attorney Vora (Vivek Gomber) is more westernized and much more liberal but sits uncomfortably between both worlds. Kamble (Vira Sathidar) is totally credible as the elderly protest singer and the main judge is seen in his private life more clearly than in court. What we see is an inept and corrupt system desperately needing an overhaul 
as in many developing countries with some touches related to modern India. It certainly makes you think and is a very promising debut film.
They too are on borrowed time and while they try to plan means of escape, they could be replaced at any time. We follow Saul, who upon seeing a dead boy, takes him as his son and is determined to find a rabbi to give him a proper Jewish burial. This is complete madness in the camp but we follow him obsessed with his goal piecing together the bits to do it.
It is an act of defiance and hope but equally hard to understand from this unassuming man. No matter. It is a way of seeing life in the camp in what must be one of the most authentic films made of that subject. Rookie director Laszlo Nemes produces a very good film indeed in his first work, Matias Erdely as the cameraman makes 100 minutes of hand held camera bearable
and justified and Geza Rohrig as Saul is a study in the human condition.
A very important piece of cinema, maybe not the most exciting or entertaining but one that takes us to a place which feels like 100% authentic.
The film is part rerun of the water-based landing and part investigation of the accident afterwards in which the investigators and insurance companies, airlines, etc., try to place more blame on the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger. Tom Hanks 
does another great job as the humble and principled ´Sully´ and is ably assisted by Aaron Eckhart as his co-pilot.
Clint Eastwood directs with his usual aplomb and economy but I can´t help feeling that he has to stretch the material a bit.
The movie has its moments particularly in the rescue scenes but then it is all over!
Their supposed civilized attitude quickly breaks down and both the gap between them in income and the strains in each marriage start to show. Billed by some as a comedy, I found it more tragic than that. So, a pretty good script and direction which start to flag in the last part. Jodie Foster as the wound up liberal Pen is particularly effective
as is Kate Winslet as the investment broker, Nancy. 
Christoph Waltz is not far behind 
but his accent gives him away at times and John C Reilly is his usual cheerful character who then loses it too.
All round it is a bit of a talkie but you know that when you start watching it. I’ve seen worse film adaptations though.
I didn’t see the award winning Gene Hackman film and while this has been less hailed as a movie, I still enjoyed it a lot despite the theme. Cedric Jimenez does a good job of recreating the era and we forget how dependent we were the telephone. The sunny Midi skies 
contrast with the drugs, the new discos and the violence. The film is basically a war between Pierre Michel (Jean Dujardin)
, magistrate appointed to wage war on the mafia and local hotshot Tony Zampa (Gilles Lelouche).
Each has his team and not all are loyal. The tentacles of crime are all over and we see this at the political level too. We also get to see the family life of each man
, so that they are almost mirror images of the other. The script is smart enough, it moves along briskly though the editing is a little too brusque at times and the music and photography all add to the effect. It may not be a great piece of cinema but it combines sufficient doses of action and excitement and historical accuracy to be a satisfying couple of hours spent in the south of France.
This leads them to a ring that is producing some sort of chemical drugs which are being tested on young and especially poor people. It’s an interesting storyline with good acting led by an unrecognizable Orlando Bloom
, the ever reliable Forest Whitaker and some competent locals.
It does not show South Africa in a good light which may be valid enough.
, false drinks (though someone is selling it contraband) and loads of glitter and glamour. Various storylines run deftly through the film including the rivalry between veteran divo Alphonso (played by Raphael as a reflection of himself)
and Adanne (Mario Casas) a sort of cross between a younger Chayanne and David Bisbal.
Then the two presenters who are married but in a constant state of war
, the producer played by Carmen Machi as a bolshy lesbian,
the plot to kill Alphonso by his very own adopted son who has hired Oscar to kill him but discovers that Oscar is a great fan. The central story is about José (Pepón Nieto), a plump ageing mother’s boy who discovers love at his table with the black widow Paloma( Blanca Suárez), who seems to bring bad luck to the men she is near.
All of this plays out to a backdrop of protests and riots against the government outside the studio.
who returns to his small town birthplace in Argentina to receive the prize of the title of the film and discovers that under the surface the same small town hypocrisies
that made him flee to Spain are still alive and kicking. He too has many of these attitudes, softened by decades in Europe but likely to flair up again. In this very dark comedy, we see how his visit home becomes a nightmare. It may not be a perfect film but the directors (Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn) and scriptwriter (Andrés Duprat) manage to juggle a number of expressions of small town life and of Argentine life in particular. Apart from the hypocrisy and thuggery, there is also an interesting line in transgressions with people either breaking the rules
, taking short cuts or disrespecting the other. All very common behaviours here in Argentina and often resulting in harm. The selfishness with which many act and their lack of thought and consideration for the other is clearly spelt out but how well the public will capture this message I don’t know. Dady Brieva
, Andrea Frigerio
and Manuel Vicente as the mayor all give good support. Not a perfect film and not one that will be loved by all but a necessary commentary on life here.
who set off to walk to India via both the icy steppes of Siberia and the Gobi desert, before crossing the Himalayas.
Aspersions on the veracity of this trek which was supposedly true have since been cast but it made for a great story. Weir captures some of that through the beautiful landscapes but I came away feeling that the film lacked something. Most of all was better characterization of a bunch of people who were perhaps not so easy to open. That Colin Farrell 
playing the thief Valka is the most interesting of the bunch says a lot. The acting is good enough with Ed Harris and his weathered face a great anchor
, Saoirse Ronan, a surprisingly effective Irena and Jim Sturgess as the leader Janusz amongst a bunch of Easter Europeans.
Trouble is they don’t have much to work with and once the film gets out of the Gulag it is really just one climatic trial after another. 
Makeup perhaps do best in conveying the hell of this journey but only in brief moments do we get much of the psychological side. So, a disappointment in part. Sure, it’s a solid film, Weir wouldn’t give us less but there is nothing that really inspires or is admirable in this.
passionfilm 