Get Low
5th February 2012
A film spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about the mysterious, 1930’s Tennessee hermit who famously threw his own rollicking funeral party… while he was still alive. The director, Aaron Schneider, captures the period extremely well and the cinematography and musical score are wonderful. The film handles tough subjects like death, regret, suspicion and guilt with wisdom and a gentle humour.
PG cert – 2011 – Dir: Aaron Schneider
99 mins – Lang: English
Cast: Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black
Set in the night clubs of Havana, New York and Las Vegas in the late 1940’s, this lush but delicate animated feature has a fantastic musical backdrop of Cuban-influenced jazz. The beautiful singer, Rita, and talented pianist, Chico, are passionately in love, but can only scrape a living in the Havana jazz clubs. When a New York impresario tells Rita he can make her a star in the USA, but there is no place for Chico in his plans, their tempestuous relationship faces its greatest challenge.
A life affirming film in which Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who, following 44 years of marriage, came out of the closet to live a full, energised, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavours to love Anna with all the bravery, humour and hope that his father taught him.
Asa is an idealistic young man who, after finishing his naval service, returns to the vast featureless steppe of Kazakhstan to live with his sister Samal and her husband Ondas. In order to become a shepherd, Asa must first be married, but the only eligible woman within miles is the enigmatic Tulpan and she rejects him because his ears are too big. Unperturbed, Asa sets out to persuade Tulpan that he would be an excellent prospect, weathering constant run-ins with his bullying brother-in-law. This is a gorgeously shot and eminently lovable film.
One of the most powerful and moving films from last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Of Gods and Men is based on the real-life story of a group of French Trappist monks living in a small village in the mountains of Algeria during the civil war of the 1990’s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Unhurried and with the most exceptional ensemble performances, it’s a story of companionship, choice and the difficulties of remaining true to yourself and your beliefs in the most difficult of circumstances.
From the director of Calendar Girls, a thought-provoking comedy drama based on the strike by the women workers at the Dagenham Ford plant in 1968. When the women demand equal pay with their male colleagues, they spark off a furious debate about sexism within British industry, the Trades Unions and the political establishment which leads indirectly to the Equal Pay Act of 1970. A splendid British cast produce a feel-good movie reminiscent of the best of the Ealing comedies.
Evelyn Couch is a middle-aged emotionally repressed housewife with a habit of drowning her sorrows in candy bars. While visiting an aunt in a nursing home, she meets Ninny Threadgoode, a frail but feisty old woman, who loves to tell tales. Ninny’s story of Idgie and Ruth, two young women who worked in the local diner in Whistle Stop, Alabama in the 1930s, inspires Evelyn to take a new pride in herself and change her life for the better. In the tradition of the old Southern storyteller, Fried Green Tomatoes’ classic tale weaves together disparate lives and cherished times. A warm, touching and amusing tale about the importance of love and friendship.
Winner of four Oscars at the 2011 awards, the film recounts the efforts of King George VI to overcome his speech impediment so that he can inspire the nation at a time of crisis. He comes to rely on the expertise and friendship of the Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help him give a lead during the abdication crisis and the oncoming war. However, this is not just an enlightening period drama but a very entertaining, heartfelt and surprisingly funny crowd-pleaser which merits a second viewing.
A dark coming-of-age comedy about a lovelorn teenage boy in 1980’s Swansea. Oliver, our duffle-coated hero, has been described as a bizarre mix of Holden Caulfield, Adrian Mole and Billy Liar. His equally eccentric and resolutely unromantic girlfriend, Jordana, is more than a match for him. Some truly dark themes – depression, illness and marital breakdown – are addressed in an honest and original way without betraying the film’s comic lightness or its adolescent viewpoint.
Winner of the best foreign-language Oscar in 2009, this marvellous thriller is full of unexpected plot twists and fascinating details. Esposito, a retired judicial investigator, is haunted by a case early in his career, when a young woman was brutally murdered. The murderer had been protected because of links to the military dictatorship of the time and Esposito feels it his duty to seek justice in the democratic Argentina of the new millennium. Parallel to this investigation runs a ‘will they or won’t they’ romance between Esposito and his upper-class boss, Isabel and the title of the film offers clues to the outcome of both stories.