Argo wins 2013 Best Picture Oscar

It’s a little-known fact that Ben Affleck – celebrity totty, tabloid bait and esteemed filmmaker – has a degree in Middle Eastern affairs from the University of Vermont. It’s a qualification he puts to good use in ‘Argo’, a nail-biting thriller based (fairly loosely) on real events which, for the majority of its length, manages to avoid the expected Hollywood clichés about the Arab world and promote a balanced view of America’s dealings with that troubled region.
It’s 1979, and after the fall of the Shah supporters of the new Islamic rulers of Iran have laid siege to the US embassy, demanding the return of their former leader for trial. But six embassy employees have escaped, and are hiding out in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Enter Tony Mendez...

Other Movies This Month

PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, THE (2012)
SKYFALL (2012)
SESSIONS, THE (2012)
AMERICAN MARY (2012)
FRANKENWEENIE (2012)
LAST DANCE (2012)
33 POSTCARDS (2011)
WHEN A CITY FALLS (2011)
LAWLESS (2012)
TO ROME WITH LOVE (2012)
ON THE ROAD (2012)
MONSIEUR LAZHAR (2012)
ROOM IN ROME (2012)
FIRE IN BABYLON (2012)
KING OF THE HILL (2012)
LOOPER (2012)

 

February, New Titles, 'Looper'

The first thing you notice is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s face. Has the star of ‘Inception’ lost a fight with an orbital sander? His nose is oddly flat, his forehead unnaturally smooth. It’s distracting – which is a problem, because ‘Looper’ offers the kind of head-bending sci-fi that you don’t want to be distracted from. Look away, and you’ll miss something important.

The face is intentional, of course: like a futuristic take on the surgerised celebrity lookalikes in ‘LA Confidential’, Gordon-Levitt has had a digital facelift to make him resemble Bruce Willis. In fact his character, gangland assassin Joe, is destined to become Willis, drop back through a portal in time and confront his ‘current’ self. Confused? If you pay attention, you won’t be.

The plot of writer-director Rian Johnson’s third feature is far too convoluted to explain: let’s just say it involves time travel, organised crime, future terrorism, death, loss, hope, regret and genetic mutation. But it’s to Johnson’s credit that, for the attentive viewer, none of these frantic plot contortions ever becomes bewildering: ‘Looper’ lays out a wealth of clever, intriguing concepts lucidly and with precision.

Not that any of these ideas is particularly new. Both the time-travel structure and a late-arriving, even more compelling subplot involving Emily Blunt as an isolated woman with a unique child are familiar from decades of sci-fi, notably ‘The Terminator’, ‘Twelve Monkeys’ and Jerome Bixby’s wonderful 1953 short story ‘It’s a Good Life’ (memorably adapted for ‘The Twilight Zone’).

But, as with his 2005 debut ‘Brick’, it’s how Johnson organises these elements that makes ‘Looper’ special.

Other New Titles
VIVA RIVA! (2010)
ARBITRAGE (2012)
MEAT (2010)
MENTAL (2012)
MY JOY (2010)
BEAUTY (2011)
JAYNE MANSFIELD'S CAR (2012)
OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES (2006)
OSS 117: LOST IN RIO (2009)
WARRIOR (2011)
HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET (2012)
THE APPARITION (2011)
SEVEN BELOW (2011
BAIT (2011)
WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE
GIRLS (2012) SEASON 1 BLU-RAY
BOARDWALK EMPIRE (2011) SEASON 2
LAST MOVIE, THE (1971)

January, New Titles, 'Searching For Sugar Man'

All you really have to know about this surprising and emotive music doc is that you should see it. Anyone who enjoyed, say, ‘The Buena Vista Social Club’ or ‘Anvil: The Story of Anvil’, will surely go for this too. It tells the unlikely story of Sixto Rodriguez, a gifted but way-under-the-radar Detroit-based Hispanic singer-songwriter, and, like those other films, it enshrines a deeply moving idea that, in our cynical, superficial world, an authentic spirit will somehow, somewhere find its way to listeners’ hearts.

It’s also the remarkably round-the-houses route of Rodriguez’s odyssey which makes ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ so intriguing. But, to be honest, the less you know about it, the richer your experience will be.

Other New Titles
BARRENS, THE (2012)
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (2012)
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (2012)
HOLY MOTORS (2012)
KILL LIST (2011)
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (2012)
WATCH, THE (2012)
PASSIONATE FRIENDS, THE (1949)
VIRGIN AND THE GYPSY, THE (1970)
AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY (2012)
MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE'S MOST WANTED (2012)
PEACE, LOVE AND MISUNDERSTANDING (2011)
RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (2012)
WUNDERKINDER (2011)
YOUR SISTER'S SISTER (2011)
EL GRINGO (2012) R4
EXPENDABLES 2, THE (2012) R4
SAMARITAN, THE (2012) R4
KINGDOM OF PLANTS WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH (2012)

December, New Titles, 'The Campaign' 'Dark Knight Rises'

CAMPAIGN, THE (2012)
The timing of this political comedy couldn’t be better. Ferrell is Cam Brady, a politician whose mane of commanding, election-winning hair is suspiciously Romney-like. And, like Romney, he’s busted saying something he shouldn’t on tape – here, it’s a filthy, X-rated sex message. That’s a goof-up too far for his shady billionaire backers, who pick a rival to challenge his re-election campaign. And they pick a doozy: oddball lovable loser Marty Huggins.

More New Titles
DARK KNIGHT RISES, THE (2012) DVD/BLU-RAY
SHE MONKEYS (2011)
SLEEPING BEAUTY, THE (2010) R1
GIRLS (2012) SEASON 1
HERE (2011)
PAUL KELLY: STORIES OF ME (2012)
REDFERN NOW (2012)
THIS IS ENGLAND '88 (2011)
LOOK AROUND YOU (2003) SEASON 1 R2/4
FEAR OF A BLACK HAT (2003) R1
HOLLOW CROWN, THE: RICHARD II (2012) R2/4
HOLLOW CROWN, THE: HENRY IV PARTS 1&2 (2012) R2/4
HOLLOW CROWN, THE: HENRY V (2012) R2/4
A NEW LEAF (1971) R1
JACK IRISH: BLACK TIDE (2012) R4
KILLING TIME (2010) COMPLETE SERIES R4
PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES (2011) R4
SAPPHIRES, THE (2012) R4
VAMPS (2012) R4
FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD, THE (2011) CRITERION
REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR (2011)
LE CIEL EST A VOUS (1944)
BLACK PANTHER, THE (1977)
LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, THE (1943)
LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943) BLU-RAY
CHERNOBYL DIARIES (2012)
ICE AGE 4: CONTINENTAL DRIFT (2012)
MAGIC MIKE (2012)

November, New Titles, '2 Days In Paris', 'Prometheus'

No, you’ve not got déjà vu. The title might look familiar. But this is French actress and filmmaker  Julie Delpy taking to heart the line that directors make the same film over and over. In 2007, Delpy wrote and directed the spiky romcom ‘2 Days in Paris’, starring as a photographer, Marion, who takes her uptight New Yorker boyfriend back to Paris to meet the parents. Five years later, and Delpy has reversed the roles: la famille is in New York to meet the boyfriend (a new one, Mingus, played by Chris Rock). And it’s more of the same, with diminishing returns: less bite and more screwballish, madcap farce.

Other New Titles

2 DAYS IN NEW YORK (2012)
DARK HORSE (2011)
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (2012)
UNDERGROUND: THE JULIAN ASSANGE STORY (2012)
A ROYAL AFFAIR (2012)
ELENA (2011)
INTO THE ABYSS (2011) | ON DEATH ROW (2012)
A FANTASTIC FEAR OF EVERYTHING (2012)
REMORQUES (1941)
MAYOR OF THE SUNSET STRIP (2003)
LONESOME (1928)
CIRCUMSTANCE (2011)
INTRUDERS (2011)
TAKE THIS WALTZ (2011)
THREE STOOGES, THE (2012)
WHERE DO WE GO NOW? (2011)
A HAPPY EVENT (2011)
LES VISITEURS DU SOIR (1942) CRITERION
QUADROPHENIA (1979) CRITERION
LUMIERE D'ETE (1943)
CIRCUMSTANCE (2011)
INTRUDERS (2011)
TAKE THIS WALTZ (2011)
THREE STOOGES, THE (2012)
WHERE DO WE GO NOW? (2011)
FOOTNOTE (2011)
TOMBOY (2011)
KABOOM (2010)
CABIN IN THE WOODS, THE (2011)
CHAINED (2012)
JACK IRISH: BAD DEBTS (2012)
MARLEY (2012)
DOLLHOUSE (2009) SEASON 1 DISCS 1-2
DOLLHOUSE (2009) SEASON 1 DISCS 3-4
KEYHOLE (2011)
BLACK PANTHER, THE (1977) BLU-RAY
PROMETHEUS (2012)
PROMETHEUS (2012) BLU-RAY
ROCK OF AGES (2012)
WE WERE HERE (2011)
OBSCURE JAPANESE PORN
DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971)
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (2011) REGION 4
SEPARATION (1968)
GET THE GRINGO (2012)
MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012)
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (2010)
PRIVATE ROMEO (2011)
REC: GENESIS (2012)
TURIN HORSE, THE (2011)
WHITE VENGEANCE (2011)
WOMAN IN THE FIFTH, THE (2011)
CALL THE MIDWIFE (2012)
PUBERTY BLUES (2012)
INNOCENT SORCERERS (1960)
PRIMROSE PATH (1940)
TAKING FATHER HOME (2006)
STORY OF A CHEAT, THE (1936)
QUADRILLE (1938)
PEARLS OF THE CROWN, THE (1937)
DESIRE (1937)

Wes Anderson's new film is utterly absorbing and a sheer delight. With nothing to dislike about it, its only fault is that it ends at all. A flippant facile soupcon perhaps, but warm blooded, cuddly, rather pink and fluffy, a variety of canapés with no main course, and very saucy for a teenage love story. Filled with too many characters,  some that are hardly drawn, it leaves major actors with almost nothing to do, but who's quibbling.
Its diametrical opposite in contemporary cinema is surely Bela Tarr's latest and final film, the lugubrious 'The Turin Horse' in which a rural farmer is forced to confront the mortality of his faithful beast of burden, which appears to be the same animal the philosopher Nietzsche went mad over.
It was with passionate relief that cinemagoers worldwide greeted the news of Bela Tarr's retirement, and this his last film reminds us all why. One of the great bores of contemporary cinema, Mr Tarr has proved a leading light in the post-modernist movement that aims to drive audiences out of picturehouses by occupying the austere high ground with minimalist scriptless plotless one-eyed studies of inactivity.
 Unlike the cine-revolutionaries of the early Seventies, he has no interest in the erotic, the stylish, the witty or the political. In its place, we endure a morose contemplation of utter banality and non-event. This is what awards committees reward in our time, but Bela has finally wearied of wearying everybody. Perhaps he was supported like Tarkovsky, Sokorov and Tsai Ming Liang by generous state subsidy. Perhaps that support has waned. Without it, work like this could never have got made, and there will be those in the West who admire this staunch dreariness simply because it could never get funded in our ruthless free-markets.

(PS The allusion to Nietzsche's horse in the title is purely tendentious, a meretricious attempt to secure funding.)

More Titles For October
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (2011) REGION 4
SEPARATION (1968)
GET THE GRINGO (2012)
MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012)
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (2010)
PRIVATE ROMEO (2011)
REC: GENESIS (2012)
TURIN HORSE, THE (2011)
WHITE VENGEANCE (2011)
WOMAN IN THE FIFTH, THE (2011)
CALL THE MIDWIFE (2012)
PUBERTY BLUES (2012)
INNOCENT SORCERERS (1960)
PRIMROSE PATH (1940)
TAKING FATHER HOME (2006)
STORY OF A CHEAT, THE (1936)
QUADRILLE (1938)
PEARLS OF THE CROWN, THE (1937)
DESIRE (1937)

September, New Titles, 'Damsels In Distress', 'The Avengers'

'Damsels In Distress'
After directing a trio of highbrow preppy comedies in the ’90s (Metropolitan, Barcelona), Whit Stillman disappeared. Now he’s back with this delightfully deadpan, elegantly anachronistic campus movie. What took him so long? Maybe he’s been waiting for a girl like Greta Gerwig to come along.

In the 28-year-old, the director has found his soulmate: here’s an actress who delivers his hyper-literate dialogue with aplomb, who has an air of having spent her teens listening to Jacques Brel and watching ‘Annie Hall’ on repeat. She stars as Violet, the ringleader of a gang of girls at an East Coast American university whose mission is to make college life more fragrant: they’re not so much mean girls as girls who mean well.

Other New September Titles

ART OF LOVE, THE (2011)
BIRDSONG (2012)
ECSTASY (2011)
LADY, THE (2011)
WAY, THE (2010)
W.E. (2011)
AVENGERS, THE (2012)
AVENGERS, THE (2012) BLU-RAY
JESS + MOSS (2011)
PINA (2011)
SONS OF ANARCHY (2010) SEASON 3
WISH YOU WERE HERE (2012)
DAMSELS IN DISTRESS (2011)
GOLD RUSH, THE (1925)
TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS (2010)
LIFEBOAT (1944)
DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY (1967)
SUCH GOOD FRIENDS (1971)
LONDON TALES (1958 | 1966 | 1976)
WONDERFUL LONDON (1924)
GAME OF THRONES SEASON 1 (2011) DISCS 3-5
SOURCE, THE (2011)
GRAY'S ANATOMY (1996) CRITERION
BULLHEAD (2011)
39 STEPS, THE (1935) CRITERION
RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON (1967)
PITFALL (1948)
BREAKING POINT, THE (1950)
CONFLICT (1945)
TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY (1951)
INNKEEPERS, THE (2011)
WELCOME TO THE RILEYS (2010)
NOEL FIELDING'S LUXURY COMEDY (2012)
HUNGER GAMES, THE (2012)
HUNGER GAMES, THE (2012) BLU-RAY
PEARLS OF THE DEEP (1966)
AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE (2010) CRITERION
INTO THE ABYSS (2011)
SURVIVING LIFE (THEORY AND PRACTICE) (2010)
BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER'S JOURNEY (2011)
GOODBYE, FIRST LOVE (2011)
HIDDEN FACE, THE (2011)
LE HAVRE (2011)
RAID, THE (2011)
DARD DIVORCE (2007)
AN AMERICAN ROMANCE (1944)