Thursday, March 31, 2011

Mar 31st
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus**
GB/Canada 2009. Infinity Features/Poo Poo Pictures/Davis Films. 123m.

In present day London an elderly travelling entertainer is actually a centuries old philosopher engaged in a constant battle of wits with the devil, and is helped in his quest by a mysterious young charity worker who shepherds them along.
The last film of Heath Ledger, whose death halfway through filming is replaced by three other Hollywood heartthrobs also playing his character in the Imaginarium sequences; the effect is surreal and suitably Gilliamesque, and imaginatively livens up what is a slightly sluggish, sentimental and not entirely convincing drama fantasy, spending a little too long in grimy London for its own good.

Written by: Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown.
Producers: Terry Gilliam, Samuel Hadida, Amy Gilliam, William Vince.
Director: Terry Gilliam.
Starring: Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger (and Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell), Lily Cole, Verne Troyer, Andrew Garfield, Tom Waits.
Photography: Nicola Pecorini.
Music: Jeff Danna, Mychael Danna.
Production Design: Anatsasia Masaro.
Editing: Mick Audsley.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Mar 21st
Monsters**
GB 2010. Vertigo Films. 95m.

A photographer escorts his boss's daughter from Mexico across the border into the US, but they are perilously forced to travel through the Infected Zone where alien creatures have invaded.
Persuasive low budget sci-fi road movie (with some nods to Apocalypse Now) with an equally soft-played romance, lacking any major frissons, but instead tellingly made in documentary-like fashion.

Written, Directed, Photographed and Visual Effects by: Gareth Edwards.
Producer: Allen Niblo, James Richardson.
Starring: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, and others.
Music: John Hopkins.
Editing: Colin Goudie.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Mar 15th
Priest*

GB TVM 1994. Electric Pictures/BBC/Polygram/Miramax. 105m.

A Catholic priest suffers a crisis of faith in a tough new parish, which also brings out his homosexual leanings.
Powerful, urgent clerical melodrama painted with the sweeping broad brush strokes characteristic of this writer, which does also make for some interesting characters and a moving ending.

Written by: Jimmy McGovern.
Producers: George Faber, Josephine Ward.
Director: Antonia Bird.
Starring: Linus Roache, Tom Wilkinson, Robert Carlyle, Cathy Tyson, James Ellis, Lesley Sharp, Robert Pugh, Christine Tremarco, Rio Fanning, Paul Barber.
Photography: Fred Tammes.
Music: Andy Roberts.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Mar 10th
The Adjustment Bureau**
(12A)
Odeon Colchester

An aspiring politician falls in love with a ballet dancer that he was never supposed to see again, but the Men In Suits intervene.
Intriguing supernatural thriller about the course of destiny, one of the easier on the eye adaptations of Philip K. Dick, quite imaginative in an unobtrusive fashion (making fun use of several New York locations), and more engaging as human drama than Inception(qv), although the pay-off is disappointing.

d: George Nolfi
s: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Terence Stamp, Michael Kelly.