NEW CINEMA RELEASES

Who's ready for a movie? Lots of new movies this week - so many, in fact, it's going to take me a week to tell you about them all! (Just joking)

TOP PICK

Top movie to go and see this week is NIGHTCRAWLER in which Lou Bloom, a driven man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, and blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran. It's an excellent movie which makes a satirical comment on the way news media has lost its way, focusing on ratings rather than providing society with good quality news. I'll post my review shortly. In the meantime, I agree with Total Film’s Jamie Graham who says [Jake]
Gyllenhaal is sensational headlining a pitch-black satire with its finger on the pulse. Go see it!

OTHERS TO SEE

Lots of others to see...

First up, THE IMITATION GAME starring Benedict Cumberpatch and Keira Knightley. It tells the true story of English mathematician and logician, Alan Turing, who helped crack the Enigma code during World War II. There's a wide range of opinions from critics. indieWIRE describes it as
... a reserved, almost conservative performance, and in holding so much back so much of the time, Cumberbatch makes his few outward displays of emotion far more impactful.

MAYBE/MAYBE NOT

There's quite a few movies in this category this week. First is PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR. In this spinoff from the Madagascar movies, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it. The general public is rating it as average but most critics are not quite that favourable to it. The Hollywood Reporter's Michael Rechtshaffen says that, While there are plenty of madcap antics to fill a feature, all that manic energy ultimately proves to be more exhausting than exhilarating.

Next up, JIMMY'S HALL, which was part of the recent British Film Festival (BFF) here in Australia and is now being released more widely. It tells the stor of political activist Jimmy Gralton is deported from Ireland during the country's 'Red Scare' of the 1930s. I didn't mind this one when I saw it at the BFF and will post a review soon. The Hollywood Reporter’s Neil Young didn't think much of it. For him, For the first time his ongoing collaboration with scriptwriter Paul Laverty, Loach's studiously safe-hands approach -- typified by regular collaborator George Fenton's near-incessant score -- can't counterbalance fundamental screenplay flaws.

Next up: MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN attempts to tackle the contemporary issues presented by the Internet. A group of high school teenagers and their parents attempt to navigate the many ways the Internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives. While the general population think this is average fare, Time Out New York’s Joshua Rothkopf thinks this is The first Reitman film to make the 36-year-old director seem about 400 years old. Hmmm... Doesn't sound promising.

The rather lengthily titled ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY provides some comic/family relief. Alexander's day begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by more calamities. Though he finds little sympathy from his family and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him, his mom, dad, brother, and sister all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. May have had potential but The Dissolve’s Keith Phipps warns us that It's a painfully minor movie that doubles as an accidental study in how pros handle themselves when given less-than-challenging material.

ONE TO AVOID

You would think that a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper would have to be good, right? Sadly, SERENA is nowhere near what we'd expect from these two actors. The story seems promising: In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton's timber empire becomes complicated when it is learned that his wife, Serena, cannot bear children. According to Time Out London’s Cath Clarke We don't invest anything in either character, and with barely any tension, Serena grabs neither head nor heart. Give it a miss.

That’s it for this week. See you at the movies!

* Movie synopses are based on/adapted from IMDB. Opinions are mine except where references are provided.