Sunday's Illness (June.2018)
Director- Ramón Salazar
Stars- Bárbara Lennie, Susi Sánchez.
Language-Spanish, French dialogue with English subtitles.

Anabel (Susi Sánchez) is a successful businesswoman, lives
a comfortable with her husband and businessman
Bernabé (Miguel Ángel Solá) in Barcelona.

The presence of Chiara(Bárbara Lennie) as a catering waitress
at one of the parties held at her home, the daughter she
abandoned at the age of eight in a previous marriage and
now 35 years later.

They meet the following day. She’s content to any future claims
she might make to property and wealth but Chiara doesn’t want
money.

But she issues an unusual request: Spend 10 days with her and
then they can part ways for good.
They leave the city behind and travel out to Chiara's rural home
near the border of France and Spain where cell phones
don’t get signal and they are completely alone.

Anabel puts up with it all, accepting that this is the price
she must now pay.
Like getting her elegant mother covered in mud with a hosepipe.
Time passes slowly and they’re forced to confront each other
of years of hurt, anger, and confusion.
That is not all and Anabel is still left wondering just what
really Chiara wants.
She is there to make the most difficult decision of her life.

When they are in the lake, there’s an idea of how death is
connected to the idea of birth.

Where is Kyra(2018)
Director-Andrew Dosunmu
Writer-Darci Picoult
Cinematographer- Bradford Young
Stars-Michelle Pfeiffer, Kiefer Sutherland

Kyra Johnson, beautiful middle-aged, divorced, unemployed
and struggling to survive. She hasn't had a job since she was
laid off two years ago. She’s struggled to find work since
and return home to New York.

She can't even afford a new skirt for a job interview.

She’s living in a small apartment caring for her elderly,
ailing mother, Ruth (Suzanne Shepherd)in her daily needs.
It’s clear the two are very close and sharing her
mother’s disability cheque.

When Kyra’s mother dies, that is where her own story really begins.
Out of work, money and short on supportive friends and relatives.
It begins her sad, steady descent into desperation and petty criminality.
She starts dressing as the dead woman to try and cash them at the bank.

This movie is about the things we do to survive in extreme circumstances.
Pfeiffer’s presence on screen gives you joy, panic, and sadness.



This post has been edited by lleihuan: Jul 10 2018, 08:06 AM

Leave No Trace (2018)
Director-Debra Granik (Winter's Bone, 2010)
Stars- Ben Foster, Thomasin McKenzie

Based on the Peter Rock’s 2009 novel My Abandonment.

A traumatized veteran and PTSD sufferer, Will (Ben Foster)
struggling with his demons. He escapes the real world by taking his
thirteen-year-old teenage daughter, Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) to lives
in the Forest Park in the mountains of Portland, Oregon.

We don't know what has led Will to believe this is best for himself
and his daughter. Running from societal expectations that he can't,
or won't face.
To evade capture, he puts her through drills to make her aware of the
traces that she leaves. Until one day when Tom is accidentally spotted
by a jogger in the woods.

Will Tom seek independence from her restless father for a safer
lifestyle, or he will voluntarily allow her the freedom to go
her own way?
Top notch filmmaking and should not be missed.

Apostle (October 2018)
Written and directed - Gareth Evans
Cast- Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen, Mark Lewis Jones,
Kristine Froseth, Lucy Boynton, Mark Milner

Set at the start of the 20th century.Thomas Richardson(Dan Stevens)
an ex-priest and lost son to a wealthy English father but have an
undying love for his sister Jennifer (Elen Rhys)
Returns home when he learns that she's been kidnapped for ransom
on the remote island of Erisden by a mysterious cult led by
a "Prophet" named Malcolm (Michael Sheen).
The ransom money is in exchange for her life as the crops on the
island are beginning to fail. They worship a Deity known as Her.

Thomas sets the stage for a daring rescue mission and intending to
pass himself off as just another pilgrim among those who follow the prophet.
His father is in no condition to deal with kidnappers.

Dan Stevens delivers a good performance and the score is phenomenal.

Cold War (2018)
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski(2013-Ida)
Starring: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc
Language: Polish and French with English subtitles(in black and white)

Set against the background of the Cold War in 1950s Poland,
Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) composer and pianist at a folk-music academy.
He travels around the Polish remote countryside with his partner,
and a Communist Party official Kaczmarek (Borys Szyc).
Searching for untapped local fresh talent to form a group to
tour the Eastern Bloc.

During the audition process, Wiktor is taken interest with a blonde singer
and dancer Zula (Joanna Kulig). She from the city and not from the villages.
She auditions not with a folk song, but one from a Russian movie.
She sings okay.
She has also been in trouble with the law and was recently let out of
detention after she attacked her stepfather when he tried to assault her.

Wiktor insists that he wants her for her talent, not anything else.
Her talent and charisma are undeniable. His affair with her made Zula
into a star.

Wiktor irate when Polish authorities want Irena and Wiktor to add
a few numbers praising the Soviet Union and its leader, Stalin.
While performing in East Berlin, Wiktor plans his defect with Zula
but she never meets him at their planned rendezvous. He crosses the
border alone.

The mismatched couple begins one of the most painful romances,
a decade of falling apart and coming back together.
Stretches from Poland to Germany to Yugoslavia to France and back again.
A moving moment where Zula joined Wiktor in Paris and starts to
dance to "Rock Around the Clock" in a nightclub with much energy and passion.

A sad story of two broken lovers in a broken country who can't stand to
stay apart but also sometimes can't stand each other either.

Outlaw King (9 November 2018)
Director - David Mackenzie
Cast - Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson,
Florence Pugh(The Little Drummer Girl)

It’s a tale that’s been covered before by Mel Gibson’s
biography of William Wallace Oscar-winning Braveheart.

Outlaw King picks up after a rebellion led by William Wallace
has been defeated and sees Robert the Bruce(Chris Pine)
navigating the tricky politics of swearing loyalty to English
King Edward I (Stephen Dillane) without losing the respect of
his countrymen. A broken man who can only keep his land by paying
English taxes.

To further cement bonds, King Edward marries off his goddaughter,
Elizabeth De Burgh (Florence Pugh) for diplomatic reasons.

But the situation quickly disintegrates and war resumes.
Robert is a politician who builds alliances carefully,
secretly asking his fellow Scotsman to unite the clans.
He murders the ones who threaten to tell the English about his plans.

It is an efficient and watchable film. It tells a good story with good acting.
The final battle is bloodcurdling and violent.

Cam (November 16, 2018)
Director- Daniel Goldhaber
Writer- Isa Mazzei
Stars - Madeline Brewer(The Handmaid's Tale), Patch Darragh,
Melora Walters, Devin Druid.

Alice(Madeline Brewer) is a sex worker.
She makes her living doing camgirl show by the online
name “Lola.” In front of the camera, she is an actress.
Behind it, a writer, set designer and a director.

She teases her fans with brief flashes of nudity.
trying to crack the top 50 ranking of Free Girls. Live,
the website she broadcasts on. The ranking allows her
to live lavishly like renting a house on her own and
to pay for almost $5000 furniture.
She also keeps her life strictly compartmentalized.

Of course, she is afraid that her mom and friends will
discover her night job.
Only her little brother Jordan knows in her personal life.
And we later take note of the pride her mom has in her
for doing well!

When something bad finally does happen, she did not sees it coming.
She thinks it’s a prank or a technical error.
Soon it becomes clear that somebody has stolen her cam girl persona.
She’s been replaced on her show with an exact replica of herself
and using it to the top of the rankings.

Good performance from Madeline Brewer.
And with Alice"s plight, we're left with the ability to make theories.
What would you do if someone stole your social media accounts
and started saying and doing things that you would never say or do?




This post has been edited by lleihuan: Nov 18 2018, 02:38 PM

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle( available-December 7, 2018)
Director- Andy Serkis
Music- Nitin Sawhney
Cast- Rohan Chand, Freida Pinto.

Andy Serkis, best known for his motion capture work
(in this filmmaking technology, mapping actors’ expressions
onto computer-generated beasts) in films like
Gollum, Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Caesar, in new Planet Of
The Apes.

Adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

A small human baby is found in the jungle.
His parents are killed by the man-eating tiger
Sher Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch).
A panther, Bagheera (Christian Bale) picks up the little boy and
leaves him outside the cave of a wolf family.
They decide to raise him as their own son.
A child they name Mowgli(Rohan Chand)

Shere Khan on the prowl and determined to make a meal out
of the man-cub at the very first opportunity.
Mowgli faces many serious threats as he resists suggestions
that he should return to the nearest man village.

There are some inconsistent visual effects.
Not everything works, what does is impressive.

Ashes in the Snow (11 Jan 2019)
Director- Marius A. Markevicius
Writer - Ben York Jones
Stars- Bel Powley, Lisa Loven Kongsli,
Martin Wallström, Peter Franzén.

Based on Ruta Sepetys’ bestselling novel,
“Between Shades of Gray.”
Many movies have dramatized the horrors of Hitler’s
Germany, but only a few have exposed the abuses
against the Eastern European countries that became
part of the Soviet empire under Stalin.

Set in the middle of WWII, the evening of June 14, 1941.
Sixteen-year-old Lina (Bel Powley)a talented graphic
artist had her dream of studying fine arts smashed.
When a visit from NKVD officer arrested
her mother, Elena (Lisa Loven Kongsli)and younger
brother, Jonas (Tom Sweet) from their home.

Together with other captives on a train to - first to a
labor camp where farming is possible, and later to
brutally cold remote Siberia.

Ashes in the Snow tells the story in the eyes of Lina
and help us look closer at what the exiles have experienced.
It is also the story from the two women that reflect strength
and resilience under horrific conditions.
A struggle of surviving.

The film main problem is the lack of character depth and development.





This post has been edited by lleihuan: Jan 12 2019, 09:59 AM

Dragged Across Concrete (2019)
Release Date: 22 March
Director-S. Craig Zahler
Running Time-2h 39m
Stars -Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Tory Kittles.

Henry Johns (Tory Kittles) an ex-convict arrives home from prison.
Found his mother not only using drugs but has also turned to
prostitution to make ends meet, to support his disabled kid
brother, Ethan (Myles Truitt). He desperately needs to fix his family
problem. Circumstances don’t allow him many options for income.

Henry has a good heart.

City cops Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn)
both suspended six weeks without pay by their superior Lt. Calvert (Don Johnson)
when neighbor captures the injury on video, for roughing up a Latino drug dealer
And belittle his half-naked girlfriend during the drug bust.

Ridgeman has his own financial troubles. His ex-cop wife Melanie(Laurie Holden)
with multiple sclerosis and can't walk without a cane. His daughter Sara(Jordyn Ashley Olson)
being bullied by the African American youths in their neighborhood.
He wants to earn enough money to move his family elsewhere.

His partner, Anthony Lurasetti wants money to buy an impressive ring to
propose to his girlfriend.

The suspended cops decide to pull off their own score. Lurasetti reluctantly
agrees to go along with his partner...

It takes over more than 75 minutes for the stories of Ridgeman, Lurasetti and
Henry to intersect. Only when a new mother Kelly Summer (Jennifer Carpenter),
a bank loan officer, with separation anxiety as she leaves her infant son at home
to return to work for the first time.

Mel Gibson performance here is some of the best work he’s done in years.