seemingly taking its cue from the riotously enjoyable Piranha 3D. General release from Fri 30 Sep.
What’s Your Number (15) 106min Romantic comedy starring Anna Faris as a woman who looks back on previous relationships to see if she let her true love get away. General release from Fri 30 Sep.
Johnny English Reborn (PG) 101min Rowan Atkinson reassumes the role of the inept anti-Bond. General release from Fri 7 Oct. The Three Musketeers (3D) (12A) 110min Paul WS Anderson swashes his buckle with Dumas’ tale of derring-do, starring his spouse and Resident Evil leading lady Milla Jovovich as the treacherous Lady de Winter. General release from Wed 12 Oct.
Dolphin Tale (3D) (U) 113min Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd lend their talents to this family story about a boy’s relationship with the ocean’s friendliest mammal. General release from Fri 14 Oct. First Night (15) 116min ●●●●● Richard E Grant plays a wealthy businessman who turns his hand to opera singing as a means of proving his soulfulness to his peers, as well as winning the heart of a female conductor. Reviewed at list.co.uk. General release from Fri 14 Oct.
Real Steel (12A) 127min Rocky meets Transformers in this boxing ‘bots family drama/actioner. Reviewed at list.co.uk. General release from Fri 14 Oct.
Texas Killing Fields (tbc) tbcmin Thriller based on true events, as cops Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan track down a sadistic serial killer. General release from Fri 14 Oct. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (12A) 90min Morgan Spurlock (he of Supersize Me and Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? fame) examines the strange world of product placement. Selected release from Fri 14 Oct.
Film REVIEWS
ALSO RELEASED
Killer Elite (15) 100min Jason Statham plays wildly against type as an aggrieved SAS veteran. Also stars Clive Owen and Robert De Niro. General release from Fri 23 Sep. Soul Surfer (12A) 106min A teenage surfer girl overcomes the trauma of a shark attack to get back in the water. General release from Fri 23 Sep.
Tucker & Dale vs Evil (15) 89min Horror comedy in which the titular redneck heroes are beseiged in their mountain cabin by a group of preppy students. Selected release from Fri 23 Sep.
Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston (15) tbcmin Iconic 1970s fashion designer Halston is the subject of this documentary, featuring interviews with Billy Joel, Liza Minelli and Diane von Fürstenberg. Selected release from Fri 23 Sep.
Abduction (12A) 106min Twilight’s Taylor Lautner stars in this thriller about a man who discovers his baby photo on a missing persons website and attempts to uncover the truth about his life. General release from Wed 28 Sep. The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan (PG) 90min Documentary tracking the changes in the life of Mir, an Afghan boy, from age eight to 18. Selected release from Thu 29 Sep.
Broken Lines (tbc) 89min Romantic drama set in contemporary London, starring Paul Bettany and Olivia Williams. Selected release from Fri 30 Sep. Force (tbc) 104min Bollywood action popcorn flick about a gung ho renegade cop. Selected release from Fri 30 Sep.
La Piscine (12A) 123min ●●●●● Jacques Deray’s 1969 romantic crime thriller starring Alain Delon and Jane Birkin is cleaned-up and re- issued by the cine-buffs at Park Circus. Reviewed at list.co.uk. Selected release from Fri 30 Sep.
Shark Night 3D (15) 91min The second shark movie this issue, this one more focussed on bloody carnage than poignant redemption,
66 THE LIST 22 Sep–20 Oct 2011
DRAMA/SCI-FI MELANCHOLIA (15) 135min ●●●●●
With a bang not a whimper, Lars Von Trier’s curious, enigmatic and deterministic film seeks to equate the black dog of depression with an apocalypse brought on by the collision of two planets. Divided into two parts which are preceded by a stunning tableau of stills of events to come, Melancholia begins with the disastrous wedding of clinically depressed Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skasgård) at her anxious sister Claire’s country pile. In the second part of the film Justine returns to recuperate with Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her husband John (Keifer Sutherland) – an amateur astronomer. As Claire nurses Justine it becomes clear that a large rogue planet is to pass very close to Earth in a matter of days. As Claire’s anxiety escalates, Justine’s abates. Von Trier’s unique take on the apocalypse thriller has the logic of a
nightmare. Ideas of familial dysfunction, the obscenity of weddings and mental illness as an American institution are broached then abandoned. All too obviously inspired by August Strindberg’s The Dream Play (‘Everything can happen, everything is possible and likely’), Von Trier’s film is almost certainly more than the sum of its parts.
Kirsten Dunst gives a career best turn as the troubled Justine, while Gainsbourg is the key to guiding the viewer to the final reveal. Kiefer Sutherland is fantastic as pragmatist John and John Hurt, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier bring alot of class to proceedings. It is, however, the use of Richard Wagner’s overture from Tristan and Isolde that really compounds Von Trier’s tale of astrophysics and the human psyche. Like Von Trier’s metaphors and meanderings, its vulgarity is remarkable, but the power is undeniable. (Paul Dale) ■ Selected release from Fri 30 Sep.
DRAMA TYRANNOSAUR (18) 92min ●●●●●
Unemployed widower, drunk and all-round angry old man Joseph (Peter Mullan) stumbles into the council estate charity shop minded by good Samaritan volunteer Hannah (Olivia Colman), and friendship follows initial hostility. Despite her unshakable faith, Hannah has the darkest secrets and Joseph may be her saviour.
Paddy Considine’s writing and directing feature debut is a grim, bleak but
ultimately moving affair. It has its roots in British social realist literary, theatre, TV and film traditions that led the way from Alan Sillitoe through Alan Clarke. One time photographer Considine is a brave and humane filmmaker who pays as much attention to the film’s carefully framed and constructed look as he does to the interplay between the the three main characters (including a deeply dislikeable Eddie Marsan as Hannah’s husband). The choices Considine makes in terms of characterisation, tone and narrative sweep do highlight his inexperience but this is a film which stands and falls on the performances, and Considine has champions in his corner. (Paul Dale) ■ Selected release from Fri 7 Oct. See feature, page 61.