fEatUredTraiLeR LAST DAYS IN THE DESSERT [2016, US - English]
Ewan McGregor takes on a challenging dual role as both Jesus and The Devil in his latest film Last Days in the Desert. A drama about the temptation of Christ, the film is written and directed by Rodrigo García (Albert Nobbs 2011). Premiering at Sundance in 2015 to mostly positive reviews, the film also stars Tye Sheridan, Ciarán Hinds and Ayelet Zurer. Looking forward to the film with its photography being helmed by Emmanuel Lubezki. Big fan of the maestro who has won three consecutive Oscars for his cinematography on Gravity (2013), Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015).
Director Jeremy Saulnier's 2013 thriller Blue Ruin met critical acclaim and won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year. Last year he collaborated with Patrick Stewart in his horror flick Green Room, where we get to see the darkest side of the Star Trek star ever. Stewart stars as a club owner who leads a terrifying killing crew going against an unsuspecting but resilient young punk band after they accidentally witnessed an act of violence which they weren't meant to see.
fEatUredTraiLeR FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS [2016, UK, US - English]
Meryl Streep is back, starring in a biographical story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a socialite and heiress who becomes an opera singer known for her notorious bad singing skills. Directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen 2006, Philomena 2013), the comedy-drama also stars Grant, Simon Helberg, Nina Arianda and Rebecca Ferguson, and is scheduled for a May 6 release
fiLmsToLoOkOutFoR MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN [2016, US - English]
Let’s face it, Tim Burton has always sealed his name high on a pedestal especially in his weaving of dark, quirky fantasies, but he’s no stranger as well when it comes to big misses. He hasn’t really directed any solid films in the last ten years except for Amy Adam’s biographical drama Big Eyes last year. The only bearable thing about his 2012 horror-comedy Dark Shadows was Eva Green, and the two has reunited for another fantasy getaway. I’m a huge fan of Green, she tops my list for villainous, dark roles, surpassing even names like Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Julianne Moore or Cate Blanchett. Hence making this film my pick for fiLmsToLoOkOutFoR. Based on the 2011 novel by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is a fantasy adventure film starring (apart from Green) Asa Butterfield, Ella Purnell, Chris O'Dowd, Allison Janney, Terence Stamp, Kim Dickens, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson. Written by Jane Goldman (2015 Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2011 X-Men: First Class), the story concerns a seemingly ordinary Jake who discovers a secret hideout helmed by Miss Peregrine, where she shelters a group of children with unusual abilities. Looks like Goldman has been tasked to reimagine her screenplay for X-Men but this time written for a child’s world. Soon Jake finds himself in a position where he has to defend Miss Peregrine’s children from a dark force. The film is slated for a Sept 30 release this year.
fEatUredTraiLeR THE ADDERALL DIARIES [2016, US - English]
After collaborating with Pamela Romanowsky in the 2012 drama film The Color of Time, James Franco approached her to direct an adaptation of Stephen Elliott's memoir The Adderall Diaries. Premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April last year, the gripping drama tells the story of an author (Franco) who is experiencing writer's block and an intensifying drug addiction as he spirals downwards into his obsession over a high-profile murder case. It is during this time that his hidden, dark childhood memories resurface as his distant and estranged father returns with his own story to tell, threatening not only his career but tipping him further off the edge. Co-starring Amber Heard & Christian Slater, The Adderall Diaries is slated for a limited release on April 15, 2016
fEatUredTraiLeR A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING [2016, US, Germany - English]
The last Tom Tykwer worked with Tom Hanks was a rather strange film called Cloud Atlas, co-directed with Wachowskis where he had Hanks playing several characters. The director of Run Lola Run (1998) and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) is back with another collaboration with Hanks in a German-American comedy drama film titled A Hologram For The King. Based on the 2012 novel of the same name written by Dave Eggers, the film tells the journey of a failed American salesman (Hanks) who travels to Saudi Arabia in a desperate attempt to save himself, by selling his idea to a wealthy monarch. Although unfamiliar and disorientating for him to adjust, the strange new land ends up helping him to rediscover himself. Set for April 22 release, the film co-stars Tom Skerritt and Sarita Choudhury
fiLmsToLoOkOutFoR •• Foreign Film Edition •• EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT [2015, COLUMBIA, VENEZUELA, ARGENTINA - Spanish, Portuguese, German, Catalan, Latin, Amazonian]
Inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes, Embrace The Serpent chronicles their journey traveling through the Colombian Amazon wilderness in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant, which could cure Theodor's chronic illness. Along this journey they form a life-affirming friendship with Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people. Directed by Ciro Guerra, it is Columbia's entry for the Best Foreign Film category at the 88th Academy Awards
Writer-director Rebecca Miller, wife of actor Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, is known for films like The Ballad of Jack & Rose (2005) & The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009); but this would be her work which I'm most looking forward to. Making its world premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival in September last year, Maggie's Plan stars Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Travis Fimmel, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Travis Fimmel, Wallace Shawn and Ida Rohatyn. The romantic comedy revolves around Maggie (Gerwig), an independent New Yorker whose plan to be a single mother is derailed when she falls for a married man, John (Hawke). This affair quickly destroys his volatile marriage to theorist wife, Georgette (Moore). When Maggie realizes that she has fallen out of love, she soon makes it her mission to reunite John and his ex-wife again! Maggie's Plan is scheduled for a May 20 release
Norwegian director Joachim Trier created two well-received films Reprise (2006) and Oslo (2011), where both were shortlisted to contend for the foreign-language category at the Academy Awards. Trier, who is a distant relative to Danish director Lars von Trier, debuts his first English-language feature Louder Than Bombs, and was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a father (Gabriel Byrne) and his eldest son (Jesse Eisenberg) as they grapple with whether or not to talk to their younger son/brother (Devin Druid) about the details of his mother’s suicide.
