UPCOMING FILMS

KEY LARGO

Action – Crime – Drama

John Huston

US, 1948, 101′, English

“Huston fills the rancid atmosphere of the setting – a hotel in the Florida Keys – with suspense, ambiguous motives, and some hilariously hammy bits, and the cast all go at it as if the nonsense about gangsters and human dignity were high drama. Humphrey Bogart plays a Second World War veteran- a major who goes to the hotel, which is run by the widow (Lauren Bacall) and father (Lionel Barrymore) of one of his men. The major has become disillusioned about the value of fighting, but when gangsters (who are symbols of reaction, corruption, Hitlerism) take over the hotel and start killing people, he is forced into action. The most memorable image is that of Edward G. Robinson as the head racketeer, chomping on a cigar while soaking in the bathtub; he has, as Huston said, “the look of a crustacean with its shell off.” For diversion, this home-grown Hitler humiliates his aging, drunken mistress, played by Claire Trevor, who packed such a load of pahtos into her role that she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.”
Pauline Kael

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS

Comedy – Drama

Ruben Östlund

Sweden / Germany / France / United Kingdom, 2022, 147′, English

“If someone tells you to watch a movie called Triangle of Sadness because it had won some ritzy film festival prize for its Swedish director, you might get a different impression of what it is.
The title doesn’t effectively sell how chaotically funny and eviscerating Ruben Östlund’s social satire is, so if you have qualms because it sounds like it could be some sombre, depressing thing, rest assured it’s not.
Östlund is known for his razor-sharp satires, having stamped his authority with earlier works Force Majeure and The Square, both of which explored privilege in different settings. They were both expertly crafted and unsettling. Usually, the Swede commands audiences with a raised eyebrow, but with Triangle of Sadness, it’s more like a neon sign. So, it may be a more extreme approach, but it’s a highly entertaining and potent movie.”
(Wenlei Ma, news.com.au)

LOVE, SIMON

Comedy – Drama – Romance

Greg Berlanti

US, 2018, 110′, English / German / French with English subtitles

“Teen movies are a rite of passage. From Grease to John Hughes’ entire cannon, whole generations have grown up seeing themselves depicted on screen, joined by the one thing that unites them; their shared experience of growing up. Except for LGBT people, there’s always been a bit of a problem. As teenage boys compete to get laid before college, or as teenage girls scrap to be Queen Bee, the representation of different sexualities and genders have been sidelined, at best, or even ridiculed, at worst. So as Love, Simon appears in multiplexes around the world, the very first mainstream teen comedy to feature and revolve around a gay protagonist, its significance cannot be underplayed.
What sets Love, Simon apart from its peers is that while all the composite parts of the teen comedy genre are present, there is something also present that is much bigger than your usual boy-meets-girl fayre. Though the only real threat of homophobia comes from a small group of machismo douchebags at school, it emphasises just how big a deal the sexual maturity of a LGBT person can be, even in the best of circumstances. In a confrontation with Martin later, Simon berates that coming out “should have been MY thing”, and while this millennial bleat sounds like a first-world suburban issue, it is an ‘issue’ nonetheless, something that teen movies steer well clear of, even in terms of race and gender. So while Love, Simon won’t win any prizes for its originality of plot or artistry, when the film is assembled and viewed within the context of the Hollywood landscape, this is a film of great quality and real significance.”
(Ben Turner, The Pink Lens)

TWIN PEAKS, SEASON ONE

Crime – Drama – Mystery

Mark Frost & David Lynch

US, 1991, 94′ + 7×46′, English with English subtitles

On February 24, 1991, Candace Sutton, the armchair critic of The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote:

“Until now, I have been able to resist the supposed lure of the weekly series. But Channel Ten has got me and, the ratings would seem to say, millions of others, hook, line and sinker into TWIN PEAKS.
TWIN PEAKS has many of the elements of a soap opera: it is slow (although not vapid) ,has a complex plot, melodrama and a plethora of disasters. It’s the weirdness, the David Lynch trademark which is the lure.
Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) comes to Twin Peaks with some experience in David Lynch films (BLUE VELVET). He has some terrific lines and is the protagonist of some of the series’ more loopy moments, such as the dream scene at the end of Wednesday night which is classic Lynch. Apart from Ed’s one-eyes wife and Andy the crying policeman, one of the best characters has to be the police receptionist.
And everyone seems to be eating. Food (and coffee) references are a constant of the scenery in Twin Peaks and people seem to be always speaking with their mouths full.”

Let’s enjoy this over three-decades old gem together, and let us experience all the other fascinating things the enthralled Australian critic had no chance to squeeze into their Sunday TV review. We’ll take breaks when we all decide to.

DRACULA

Drama – Fantasy – Horror

Francis Ford Coppola

UK / US, 1992, 128′, English / Romanian / Greek / Bulgarian / Latin with English subtitles

The week before Valentine’s day we’ll show this more atypical romance. It’s not the sweet romcom-variant, but a gothic, tragic, bloodsuckingly macabre version of romance.
Francis Ford Coppola takes Bram Stoker’s horror classic and turns it into a story of immortal love. But horror fiends don’t worry, there´s enough gothic shocks and disturbing but beautiful visuals to satisfy even the Addams family. It’s also one of the last times before CGI took over that mechanical and optical special effects were used to this extent in a big budget movie, and it’s done beautifully. Then there’s the cast:
Gary Oldman as Count Dracula
Winona Ryder as Mina Harker
Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker
Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing
Tom Waits as Renfield

THE NORTHMAN

Action – Adventure – Drama

Robert Eggers

“In director Robert Eggers’ (The Lighthouse) latest, the ripped Swede portrays a Viking hell-bent on revenge alongside Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, and Björk.
Robert Eggers crafts ancient fairy tales drenched in torment and madness, and The Northman proves a fable of fire, blood and fury that expands the ferocious scale of his folk-horror cinema. Fuming with a rage so fearsome as to be otherworldly, the latest from the director of The Witch and The Lighthouse is at once a kindred spirit to those masterful predecessors and a turning point for the 38-year-old auteur, employing his trademark aesthetics and atmosphere for a more streamlined and archetypal story about a Viking prince on a quest for revenge against his treacherous uncle. Coated in dirt and muck and stained in swaths of crimson, it’s a grand and gruesome epic of destiny and decapitations, malevolence and magic—a death-metal ode to honor, retribution and sacrifice that casts payback in a surprisingly, and thrillingly, positive light.”
(Nick Schager, The Daily Beast)

NO ORDINARY MAN

Documentary – Biography – Music

Aisling Chin-Yee & Chase Joynt

Canada, 2020, 83′, English with English subtitles

“Where other documentaries glance across the surface of what representation means for trans audiences and how its history has impacted the present, No Ordinary Man takes a narrower and more in-depth approach. Not only does it offer a glimpse into the life of American jazz musician Billy Tipton, whose death in 1989 caused quite a tabloid stir when his transness was revealed, but by collaborating with a host of trans artists and actors, it gives new meaning to his work. The film brilliantly makes space for trans men to present nuanced conversations about what being trans means for them, while contextualizing Tipton’s impact in the present day.”
(Juan Barquin, them)

GRAND PRIX

Drama – Sport

John Frankenheimer

US, 1966, 176′, English / French / Italian / Japanese with English subtitles

//Formula 1 Warm-up//

Wether you’re a fan of the popular Netflix documentary series, a fan of the sport or just looking for some high-octane film experiences we’ve got two weekends to get you warmed up for the 2023 Formula 1 Season.

John Frankenheimer’s 1966 racing spectacle is really something to be seen big and loud. For the first time on film, cameras captured iconic Formula 1 tracks from incredible camera placements inside and around the vehicles themselves. Filmed in Cinerama (the IMAX of its day), GRAND PRIX follows an American Formula 1 driver (played by James Garner) as he searches for a new team to sponsor him after being fired for causing a crash in the thrilling opening sequence filmed on the infamous street course at Monaco.

THE ARTIST

Comedy – Drama – Romance

Michel Hazanavicius

France / Belgium / US, 2011, 100′, English & French with English subtitles

In 2011, a French romantic comedy-drama hit the cinemas. Nothing unusual about that. A bit more unusual, the film was black and white, silent (except for the lovely music score) and in old-timey 1.33:1-format. And it went on to charm both critics and public, winning scores of prizes (including Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Score and Best Costume Design). Together with Mel Brooks 1976 Silent Movie, this is a rare and brief comeback for Silent cinema.

The style suits the story. It’s Hollywood 1927, the heydays of silent cinema, and movie star George Valentin is at the top of his fame. He meets young up-and-comer Peppy Miller. Everything looks well.
But on the horizon, the advent of talkie pictures is looming. Old stars will be forgotten (20 years later they’ll be Norma Desmonds card playing friends in Sunset Blvd.), and new stars appear.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Action – Adventure – Comedy

Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

US, 2022, 139′, English & Mandarin & Cantonese with English subtitles

“Delightfully bonkers on the surface, this inventive extravaganza from the directing team called Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) has a deep layer of family feeling and a well-earned emotional pull at the end. Michelle Yeoh is ideal and comically straight-faced as Evelyn, a harried laundromat owner with tax problems who enters a multiverse of alt-Evelyns. Exploding with colour, at times the film is a phantasmagoria of morphing identities and shifting universes – in one Evelyn does laundry, in another she’s a movie star ­– yet it always remains true to its believably humane characters. It’s the rare art film that can make audiences cry, and also rake in a ton of money, taking in more than $100 million at the box office worldwide.”
(Caryn James, BBC Culture)

MA VIE EN ROSE

Drama

Alain Berliner

Belgium / France / UK, 1997, 88′, French with English subtitles

“There’s something to be said for revisiting a film. I always knew I had to include Belgian director Alain Berliner’s 1997 feature Ma vie en rose in this series. It’s about seven-year-old Ludovic Fabre (Georges du Fresne), who is born male but identifies as female and is met with considerable scrutiny by her upper-middle-class family and suburban community. It remains one of the few films to consider transgendered youth, a topic in need of greater exploration.
The first time I saw it, I commended its efforts, but thought it fumbled in its integration of melodrama and fantasy. I felt like I was hit over the head with message. At the same time, I was unsure about what to do with a film that was at once a social issue picture and an observation of the gentry class, which is a cornerstone of mainstream Belgian and French cinema and informs American fare like Nancy Meyers’ It’s Complicated. All of this felt incongruous. But when I watched it again, I was surprised by how effective Ma vie en rose is at getting into Ludovic’s subjectivity and her neighborhood’s subtle class dimensions. Though by no means a perfect film, Ma vie en rose is better than I remembered it.
Credit should go foremost to du Fresne, who is great as Ludovic. It’s pretty astounding how capable he is at conveying Ludovic’s feelings, particularly when she’s swallowing others’ transphobia. Every time she encounters a wrong-headed comment by an authority figure, a classmate’s taunt, or a haircut from her mother, you feel Ludovic’s longing to be treated like a girl. She wants to marry classmate Jérôme (Julien Rivière), who himself has ambivalent feelings toward his attraction to her. Often these pressures to conform to norms of boyhood masculinity force her to retreat into a rich imaginary life where she recasts a glamorous doll named Pam (clearly modeled after Barbie) as her fairy godmother. While I think these reveries seem to spring from the mind of an adult rather than a child, I welcome their inclusion and think they enrich our understanding of Ludovic’s mindset.
Ma vie en rose hints at a future that requires communities working together with kids and trusting their abilities to forge personal identities in order to guarantee it.”
ALYX VESEY, Bitch Media

12 MONKEYS

Mystery – Sci-Fi – Thriller

Terry Gilliam

US, 1995, 129′, English

In a future world devastated by disease, a convict (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

“Terry Gilliam’s most mature film to date demands rigorous analysis from the viewer. Add to this the director’s grotesquely comic hallmarks, and the resulting film is a complex and rewarding fantasy.
A touching examination of madness compensates for the reprehensible Cuckoo’s Nest cliché of the sanatorium. Pitt foreshadows his edgy performance in Fight Club with his hyperactive activist, but it’s Willis who surprises as the ambiguous hero desperate to escape the horrors of destiny.”
Nick Hilditch, BBC

CASABLANCA

Drama – Romance – War

Michael Curtiz

US, 1942, 102′, English with English subtitles

The Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman classic comes to Hypnos! In the early days of WW2 Rick Blaine (Bogart) owns a small café in Casablanca, Morocco well known as a discreet spot where refugees looking for a way to escape the encroaching Nazi threat can fix illicit documents ensuring their escape. Things get complicated when his ex-lover, Ilsa (Bergman), arrives with her current husband looking for a way to flee the continent.

ONE BY ONE
aka
THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

Documentary – Sport

Claude Du Boc

US, 1974, 100′, English

//Formula 1 Warm-up//

Wether you’re a fan of the popular Netflix documentary series, a fan of the sport or just looking for some high-octane film experiences we’ve got two weekends to get you warmed up for the 2023 Formula 1 Season.

A unique glimpse into the lives of Formula 1 drivers as recorded during the 1973 racing season. Hosted by actor Stacey Keach and including first-hand accounts and interviews from legendary drivers such as Niki Lauda, this documentary is quite the look into the exhilarating and deadly world of Formula 1 racing at the time. Tense racing footage and fascinating behind the scenes photography paired with a funky 1970s soundtrack make this a must-see for fans of the sport but also for those interested in cult 70s documentary films.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN

Horror – Sci-Fi

Jack Arnold

Victim of weird mist ! Day by day he shrinks! Science is baffled! Cat becomes monster! Terror at every turn! Deadly spider attacks! Lost in a flood’s fury!

Sci fi/horror/fantasy-legend Richard Mathesons first foray into film, he wrote the script to this one. But the real stars are the special effects and production design crews, who with a mere $750000 budget managed to create a menacing and frightening world out of ordinary household objects. Don’t miss the chance so see this sci fi-classic, in the way it’s meant to be seen, on the big screen! But be warned spider phobics, there will be giant tarantulas up on that screen.