Cinema on My Personal Corner

The Snowtown Murders

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:00:00 +0000

Jamie, a 16-year-old boy, plays in the street with his brothers and the neighbours’ kids. His mother, who is ill, struggles to keep the family going. The man next door seems to be abusing his sons. A friend comes round to lend a hand and introduces him to John, a charismatic middle-aged man who immediately hits it off with the boys, especially Jamie. This is where the relationship with Australia’s most infamous serial killer, John Bunting, begins.

Immortals

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:16:34 +0000

King Hyperion has declared war on humanity. He is searching all over Greece for the Epirus Bow, a weapon of great power that would allow him to free the Titans imprisoned by the gods on Mount Tartarus. The laws forbid the gods from intervening directly in human conflicts. But Zeus has been secretly training Theseus, a mortal who will lead the battle against Hyperion…

What have we got?

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:25:44 +0000

Red. A young woman is carried along in the middle of La Tomatina. She seems happy. Soon we see her as a middle-aged woman. She seems sad. This is Eva. Different images overlap in the form of memory. She seems tormented, perhaps by her past. Something has happened. Concentrate, the film will explain…

What have we got?

A strange and delicious film, told in an unusual way and centred on the stories of its characters.
A tour de force from Tilda Swinton, marvellous, carrying the weight of the film.
A magnificent Kevin, played by two young actors, Jasper Newell and Ezra Miller.
A soundtrack (by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead) and photography that fit perfectly.
A script that interests, digs deep, experiments and makes you think. Based on Lionel Shriver’s best-selling novel of the same name.

What haven’t we got?

The Awakening

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:41:26 +0000

England, 1921. The First World War has left countless victims who, together with the flu epidemic, have created the perfect climate for mediums and people who claim to talk to the other side. Florence (Rebecca Hall) is a famous investigator who, convinced that spirits don’t exist, devotes herself to exposing frauds with rational explanations. After one such case she is visited by Robert Mallory (Dominic West), who offers her a new one: at the school for orphaned boys where he teaches, a spirit has the pupils terrified. Determined to prove it’s a sham, Florence takes the case.

Contagion

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:10:48 +0000

The immediate present. Beth returns from a business trip to Hong Kong. She doesn’t feel well, looks tired and dizzy, and loses consciousness at home. Minutes later she dies in hospital in front of her stunned husband. No doctor can explain the cause. Hours later more cases appear, in the United States and around the world: an epidemic with international consequences begins.

What have we got?

A realistic film, full of suspense and action, with a virus as its star.
A director known for intelligent films and social themes (Traffic, Erin Brockovich).
A luxury cast: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet…
A debate that is social, political, biological and, above all, personal.
A big budget.

What haven’t we got?

Anonymous

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:44:35 +0000

Oxfordianism is a theory that suggests Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, as the true author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. Experts normally vouch for authorship on the strength of historical evidence: archives, contemporary testimony, historians. The Oxfordians build their case on the assumption that the plays are autobiographical, using them to draw up a profile of the author that differs from the Shakespeare we know and points towards the Earl of Oxford. They discredit the historical records, arguing that these were tampered with to protect the identity of the real author, above all because of the political climate of the time. The film is a re-creation of that period and of the circumstances that led to the plays being credited to Shakespeare, based on the Oxfordian theory.

Midnight in Paris

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:56:02 +0000

Paris. Gil and Inez are there on a trip. He, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, seems stuck on his novel. He likes walking in the rain and declares himself in love with the Paris of the 1920s. He suggests to Inez that they move there after the wedding. She seems more concerned with shopping. One night Gil decides to stroll through the city while Inez goes out for drinks with some friends. At midnight a vintage car takes him on a journey that brings his heart closer to Paris by taking him further from his girlfriend…

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:27:57 +0000

Tintin is having his portrait done in the square, drawn just as he appears in the comic. At a market, on his way home with Snowy, he spots a model ship for sale. It’s the Unicorn, and just after he buys it, two men offer him a large sum for it: Tintin refuses. With the ship at home, his curiosity about its story is stirred. But strangers break into his flat and steal it. What secret does the Unicorn hide? That’s how Tintin, with Snowy at his side, sets off on an adventure to uncover it that will take them around the world…

Real Steel

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:03:04 +0000

Near future: robot fighting is hugely popular and there’s a lot of money in it. Charlie accepts a bet that pits his robot against a bull. He gambles money he doesn’t have, gets distracted, loses, and his robot is smashed to pieces. Demoralised, he’s told on the way home that the mother of his son has died, leaving him custody of a boy he doesn’t know. He wants no part of it, but when he sees that the family is comfortably off, he strikes a deal that pays him a tidy sum if he takes the lad for two months of the summer. Without planning it, his son gets drawn into robot fighting…

The Debt

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:17:36 +0000

Israel, 1997. At a book launch, we learn that three Mossad agents (Israel’s secret service) were sent to East Berlin in 1964 to capture Dr Vogel, ’the Surgeon of Birkenau’. The plan was to bring the Nazi back to Israel to be tried for crimes against humanity. Problems during the mission end with him shot dead, which turns the three agents into celebrities. Yet that success seems to weigh on all three, because the book doesn’t seem faithful to what really happened…

Tyrannosaur

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:42:07 +0000

A solitary man leaves the pub. The dog barks, the man gets irritated, kicks it and kills it. At the betting shop he sneers at one of the staff and is told not to come back. He throws a stone through the windows. In the pub, some very short men are making a racket playing pool. He loses his temper and knocks one of them unconscious with a punch. This is Joseph, a violent man, enraged with life, who on his road to self-destruction meets Hannah, a devout shop assistant who awakens the goodness he carries inside. What we’ll see is how this relationship affects their lives.

Red State

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:54:14 +0000

Three teenagers arrange a date with a woman they’ve found online, on the outskirts of a small town in the American heartland. When they arrive, already drunk, at a trailer, a middle-aged woman is waiting with instructions to drink at least two beers if they want to get anywhere with her daughter. The boys agree and, as they undress, lose consciousness. One of them wakes up as he’s being carried, half-naked, into a church where a kind of religious ceremony is under way: these are the fundamentalists of a church plainly modelled on the Westboro Baptist Church, who want to punish them for their sexual offences.

The Ides of March

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:15:59 +0000

In a convention centre, Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is with the technicians doing a sound check. The hall is empty, with only technicians, security teams and the flag of the United States. He reads the first lines of a speech he has written, which soon overlaps with the one being delivered by Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) to a packed auditorium. So begins a film that dramatically explores the balancing act between the values, ideals and principles of characters pursuing their ambitions in a political campaign.

The Skin I Live In

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:02:36 +0000

An eminent surgeon (Antonio Banderas), obsessed with his past, creates a revolutionary new synthetic skin. Vera (Elena Anaya) is his guinea pig, a beautiful, volatile young woman who holds the key to his obsessions. That’s as far as I’ll go. There’s no need to know anything more about a story that has to be told through the film itself. Those of you who see it will be grateful.

Conan the Barbarian

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:03:22 +0000

The Cimmerians are in the thick of battle against a rival clan. The wife of Corin (the clan’s leader), who is pregnant, is mortally wounded in the fighting. Surrounded by a bloody, brutal struggle, they decide to bring the child into the world: Conan. Even as a small boy he shows his gifts as a warrior. His father teaches him to forge what will be his sword. But the village is attacked by warriors led by Khalar Zym, who capture his father and torture him in front of Conan. They’re looking for a piece of an ancient mask, forged by sorcerers, that would let its owner rule the world. In the past the Cimmerians had won the mask and split it into pieces, which they shared out among the different clans. Corin refuses to hand over his. But when they find it, they leave Corin tied above a pit of white-hot fire, held by a rope that Conan is gripping. His father’s life depends on him, but exhaustion and the pain of his wounds mean he can’t save him. Twenty years later Conan is fighting as a mercenary. Khalar Zym’s forces have spread across most of the land, and Conan recognises one of the warriors who was present at his father’s death. The revenge begins…

Cowboys & Aliens

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:59:43 +0000

Arizona, 1873. A visibly battered man, stripped of his clothes, wakes up in the middle of the scorching desert. Disoriented and with no memory, he tries to work out how he got there. The extraterrestrial-tech bracelet clamped around his wrist doesn’t help. Three cowboys on horseback ride up. These are hard times, and they’re not friendly. In the scuffle all three die, and our hero now has a horse and some clothes, though he still doesn’t know who he is. He arrives in a town and things don’t get better: after another brawl in the saloon, a mysterious woman (Olivia Wilde) who seems to recognise him doesn’t help him either. The sheriff calls him Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) and locks him up. The rich man of the area (Harrison Ford) turns up to settle old business with our hero. With a name and a history, but memories that shed no light, in the middle of all this confusion alien ships blaze overhead and abduct the citizens of Absolution (the town). That’s when Jake discovers a possible use for the bracelet, blasting one of the ships out of the sky. He can’t stop the mass abduction, but he helps put together an expedition to find the abductees, and his memories.

Beginners

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 10:22:48 +0000

Imagine this: you’re 38, you live with a dog called Arthur, and when your mother died your father came out of the closet. You talk to the dog and treat him like a person. Your parents were married for longer than you’ve been alive. You can’t hold down a relationship, you’re surrounded by gay men, and your father is terminally ill with cancer and you have to look after him…