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•• Foreign Film Edition ••
FRANTZ(2016, FRANCE, GERMANY – French, German)

There is a beguiling plot to the latest film, FRANTZ by FRANCOIS OZON, which is a loose adaptation of the 1932 ERNST LUBITCH drama BROKEN LULLABY. Largely filmed in black and white, the war drama tells the story of a widow named Anna (PAULA BEER) who every day visits the tomb of her fiancé, Frantz (ANTON VON LUCKE), who died in the war in France, and finds her life changed forever when she one day finds another stranger, Adrien (PIERRE NINEY), a young French who has been visiting Frantz’s tomb as well, claiming to have close acquaintance with her fiancé during war. Ozon has dipped his hands in quite a varied range of genre, from the dark comedy musical 8 WOMEN (2002), to the erotic thriller SWIMMING POOL (2003), to the classic Gallic Farce POTISHE (2010). It will be interesting to witness this latest feat from the forty-nine year-old French filmmaker. Selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, FRANTZ was released in September 2016. Watch the captivating trailer here

#Frantz #FrantzFilm #FrantzMovie #FrancoisOzon #EnrmstLubitch#BrokenLullaby #PaulaBeer #PierreNiney #AntonVonLucke#FrenchFilms #GermanFilms #WarDrama #Films #Movies#MovieTrailer #FilmTrailer #Drama #VeniceInternationalFilmFestival

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•• Foreign Film Edition ••
我不是潘金莲
[I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY](2016, CHINA - Mandarin)

FENG XIAOGANG is a commercially successful filmmaker known for his award-winning A WORLD WITHOUT THIEVES (2014), and two other films which won him Best Director at People's Hundred Flower Award in China - ASSEMBLY (2007) & IF U ARE THE ONE (2008). Selected to be screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2016 Toronto International Film festival, Feng's latest I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY, is adapted from LIU ZHENYUN's 2012 novel, I AM NOT PAN JIANLIAN. BINGBING FAN stars in this dark comedy as Xuelian Li, whose plan for a perfect government scam by temporarily divorcing her husband to qualify for singles-only apartment turns against her when her husband goes and marries someone else. Now the angry victim goes on an angry rampage to prove that the divorce is a scam and get her bloody revenge

#我不是潘金莲 #冯小刚 #FengXiaoGang #IAmNotMadameBovary#FanBingBing #范冰冰 #IAmNotPanJianLian #LiuZhenyun #ChineseFilms#AsianFilms #Movies #Films #MovieTrailer #Adaptation #InternationalFilms#TorontoInternationalFilmFestival #AsianMovies #TorontoFilmFestival

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KONG: SKULL ISLAND
[2017, US - English]

I've always had a soft spot for King Kong and Godzilla when it comes to monster films. When PETER JACKSON made a reboot of the 1933 King Kong classic in 2005, lead actress NAOMI WATTS danced her way into the hearts of the mighty ape along with the audience, and together they waltzed all the way to become the fourth-highest grossing film in Universal Pictures history. When Warner Bros released the first installment of the Godzilla-Kong film franchise in 2014, helmed by GARETH EDWARDS, the simply titled GODZILLA catapulted into box office success and garnered positive reviews from critics.

Come March 2017, we will be treated with the second installment of the monster-duo series. JORDAN VOGT-ROBERTS (THE KINGS OF SUMMER 2013) will direct the highly anticipated sequel, titled KONG: SKULL ISLAND. Joined by a stellar cast including TOM HIDDLESTON, BRIE LARSON, SAMUEL L. JACKSON, JOHN GOODMAN and JOHN C. REILY, the film follows a crew of explorers to the titular island, where they encounter hostile natives, difficult terrain and of course the gargantuan ape. Director VOGT-ROBERTS recently offered some hints that his Kong will be the biggest one by far, "The thing that interested me was - how big does this creature need to be, so that when you stand in the ground and you look up at it, the only thing that can go through you mind is: 'That's a god.'"

Watch the trailer here

#KongSkullIsland #KongSkullIslandFilm #KingKong #Godzilla#JordanVogtRoberts #TomHiddleston #BrieLarson #SamuelLJackson#JohnGoodman #JohnCReily #MonsterMovies #Adventure #MovieTrailer#Movies #NaomiWatts #MightyApe

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•• Foreign Film Edition ••
ILO ILO[2013, SINGAPORE - Mandarin, English]

Singaporean director ANTHONY CHEN was only twenty-nine years old when his feature debut, ILO ILO made a smashing premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, winning the critics over and bagged the Caméra d’Or, becoming the first Singaporean film to ever receive the prestigious honor. Simple and decorous, the ninety-nine minutes family drama outlines a linear tale about a family’s growing bond with their newly recruited domestic helper. Inspired by his personal childhood having grown up with a Filipina live-in nanny between the ages of four to twelve, Chen wanted to show this part of the Asian lives which may not be familiar to the rest. “The more I thought about it (domestic helper system), the more I thought about how brutal the system is - where you invite a stranger to your home and spend time with your family, with your kids. After a certain time, they almost become part of the family but what is so cruel and brutal is when at the time where circumstances have changed, the kids have grown up or you are moving house or you ran out of money or you think it’s an excess - you decide "let's send home the maid". What is so brutal is usually because the adults make those decisions but the kids are the ones that have really built that kind of bond with this foreigner who almost become part of the family - Because most of the time, the parents don't know the helper well at all as they are usually at work. It's the kids who spend the most time with the helpers so I wanted to explore that which became the starting point for the film I guess,” said the director who is inspired by Asian filmmakers like EDWARD YANG, ZHANG YIMOU and ANG LEE.

The film centers on pubescent protagonist Jiale (KOH JIA LER), a headstrong and difficult child who resists the welcoming of a Filipina nanny, Theresa (ANGELI BAYANI) into the family. Jiale is a handful, and is not getting enough attention from his pregnant working mother, Hwee Leng (YEO YANN YANN) and father, Teck (CHAN TIANWEN) who is struggling with his career. Amidst shenanigans like wounding himself just to frame the school principal, Jiale continues to make things difficult for the foreigner who is sharing not just his room, but most of the hours of his day in the absence of his struggling parents. Despite a seemingly typical storyline that may appear to be one of those films with the potential hackneyed playing of family drama and emotions, ILO ILO works in many ways. Chen displays a keen sense of relating growth of his characters with the impending financial crisis repercussions that took place in Asian countries in 1997. The dynamics of the family is engaging and the film would definitely bring forth a sense of intimacy which many Asian families could relate to. And it’s even more so for the director himself, where the success of the film has conjured the reunion between him and his nanny, TERESITA SAJONIA whom had not been in contact for sixteen years. Underneath it all, ILO ILO is an honest tale which is neither trying too hard nor pulling off stylistic stunts, it’s the purity that won the critics’ hearts, making it beat heavyweight contenders like WONG KAR WAI and JOHNNY TO in winning Best Film at the 50th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.

Rating: B+

#IloIlo #IloIloFilm #IloIloMOvie #AnthonyChen#CannesFilmFestival #KohJiaLer #AngeliBayani#YeoYannYann #ChanTianWen #FamilyDrama#FilmReview #MovieReview #Drama#DomesticHelper #Filipino #FilipinoMaid #Nanny#SingaporeanFilms #AsianFilms#AwardWinningFilms #ForeignFilms#InternationalScreens #GoldenHorseFilmFestival#TeresitaSajonia

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LIFE
[2017, US - English]

Swedish director DANIEL ESPINOSA, known for his 2010 thriller film EASY MONEY, is helming an upcoming sci-fi which teams up JAKE GYLLENHAAL and RYAN REYNOLDS as they battle against alien life-form from Mars. The film will also reunite Reynolds with his DEADPOOL writers PAUL WERNICK and RHETT REESE, and centers around a group of astronauts studying a sample from Mars which may be the first evidence of life on Mars, but the alien life-form may not be ready make friendly connections. The film, from Columbia Pictures and Skydance, also featuring REBECCA FERGUSON, ARIYON BAKARE, OLGA DIHOVICHNAYA and HIROYUKI SANADA, and slated to hit theaters May 26, 2017.

#Life #LifeMovie #LifeFilm #DanielEspinosa #JakeGyllenhaal#RyanReynolds #RebeccaFerguson #AriyonBakare #OlgaDihovichnaya#HiroyukiSanada #SciFi #SciFiMovies #Movies #MovieTrailers #Films

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THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
[2016, US - English]

When PAULA HAWKINS’ book THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN became a global bestseller that sold more than 15 million copies and heavily compared to the likes of GILLIAN FLYNN’s GONE GIRL, we knew it was a matter of time it gets an adaptation. Director of the 2011 Oscar-nominated period drama THE HELP, TATE TAYLOR decided to take on the challenge two months after Dreamworks Pictures acquired the film rights in May 2014, and indeed it proved to be a complicated adaptation. Unlike GONE GIRL’s film which was written by Flynn herself, apart from several set visits, Hawkins practically left the adaptation in others’ hands. Scriptwriter ERIN CRESSIDA WILSON has to write a mystery tousled within several characters’ minds, from alcoholic Rachel Watson (EMILY BLUNT), to Megan Hipwell (HALEY BENNETT) who is detached from her marriage to Scott (LUKE EVANS) and feeling entrapped in her life as a housewife, and finally we have Anna Watson (REBECCA FERGUSON) who constantly forebodes Rachel’s intentions as she did after all started her family from having an affair with Rachel’s husband, Tom Watson (JUSTIN THEROUX).

Besides having another book to work on, Hawkins also felt that her novel was in capable hands after meeting the forty-seven year old American director. “I was always confident about their handling of it from the early days, when I met Tate…we went for a drink, and immediately when he was talking about his vision for it, I was thinking, ‘He sees the same sort of things in it that I see.’ He wanted it to be very dark from the start, and I think the thing I was most concerned about was that [the filmmakers] would take away the darkness of it,” she shared. Apart from that, audience is brought into the muddled world of Rachel who is a divorcee struggling with alcoholism, constantly doubting her own innocence as she gets caught in a missing person’s investigation.As we know it will always be much more feasible in writing to bring forth the impact of painting Rachel’sblurry perspective and culminating the suspense. Tate opted for several techniques which may have worked against him when it came to winning the hearts of the critics, including fuzzy narratives, creating a somewhat ‘drunken camera’ effect and lots of close ups. Many are pinning the film down for the weak narrative and its unnecessarily slow-boiling build-up for its plot. I felt it was far from a flaw, as it does give audience the claustrophobic and disorientated feel which Rachel’s character is constantly going through. Hawkins herself admitted that it’s quite a task to bring that into the big screens, where she shared “It’s easier to hide things on the page, because people aren’t actually seeing them. It’s easier to obfuscate and give hints of information without giving the full picture. It’s very important when you’re writing a thriller to drip feed information at the right pace, but you have more space to do it in a book - you only have an hour and a half in a movie.”

I won’t go further into the story as it would inevitably enter into spoilers territory. Suffice to say, Blunt delivers a strong performance as the vulnerable Rachel who painstakingly forces her way into an intricate web of characters amidst the mystery of a possible missing person and murder case, and Tate brought Hawkins’ bestselling novel into film which altered several aspects (including introducing a full blown focus on LISA KUDROW’s character which was not in the book) that worked for me. Granted (since people can’t get away from comparing it to acclaimed GONE GIRL), the suspense is not as staggering, I find myself however not agreeing to the loathing reviews going around about this film. Some of the reasons brought up including the impact of changing the setting of the book from London to the suburban Ardsley on Hudson in New York, is kind of baseless as it doesn’t carry any weight at all to the storyline.

Rating: B+

#TheGirlOnTheTrain #PaulaHawkins #TateTaylor#EmilyBlunt #HaleyBennett #LukeEvans#RebeccaFerguson #JustinTheroux#ErinCressidaWilson #BookAdaptation#BestSellingNovels #Novels #Thriller #Suspense#GoneGirl #GillianFlynn #Movies #Film#MovieReview #FilmReview

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SHUT IN
[2016, FRANCE - English]

BAFTA-winning director FARREN BLACKBURN is bringing a heart-pounding thriller starring NAOMI WATTS as a widowed child psychologist who lives a painful life caring for her paralysed son in an isolated rural location in New England, and when she takes on a new client played by JACOB TREMBLAY, her life sinks deeper into a bigger nightmare when the boy suddenly disappears into a deadly snowstorm, as she begins to suspect that he is haunting her. The film opens in November this year.

Watch the trailer here

#SinkIn #SinkInFilm #FarrenBlackburn #NaomiWatts #JacobTremblay#OliverPlatt #HorrorMovies #Thriller #MovieTrailer #Films #Trailers